GSLEY 


STRATED  • 


THE  LIBRARY 

OF 

THE  UNIVERSITY 

OF  CALIFORNIA 

LOS  ANGELES 

Gift 

From  the  Library  of 

Henry  Goldman,  Ph.D. 

1886-1972 


THE   WATER- BABIES 


The 

Water  -Bdbies 

by 
Qwrles  Kinsley 


d 

It 


Dodd.Mead  £>  Contpdwy 

Pukliakers          '     * 


Copyright,  1910, 
DODO,  MEAD  AND  COMPANY.   l»c« 


PRINTED  IN   U.   S.  A. 


Annex 


TO 

MY  YOUNGEST    SON 

GRENVILLF  ARTHUR 

AND 
TO  ALL  OTHER   GOOD   LITTLE   BOYS 

Come  read  me  my  riddle,  each  good  little  man; 
If  you  cannot  read  it,  no  grown-up  folk  can. 


INTRODUCTION 

"Ix  was  in  1863  that  The  Water-Babies  was  writ- 
ten, showing  the  naturalist  in  the  fulness  of  his 
strength,  fearlessly,  yet  tenderly,  playing  with  the 
tremendous  results  of  advanced  science  in  the  nine- 
teenth century.  .  .  . 

"  The  writing  of  the  book  was  the  outcome  of  a 
gentle  reminder,  at  breakfast  one  spring  morning,  of 
an  old  promise,  to  the  effect  that  zs  the  three  elder 
children  had  their  book — The  Heroes — the  baby, 
my  youngest  brother,  then  four  years  old,  4  must 
have  his.'  My  father  made  no  answer,  '  but  got  up 
at  once  and  went  to  his  study,  locking  the  door,'  and 
in  an  hour  came  back  with  the  first  chapter  of  The 
Water-Babies  in  his  hand.  At  this  pace  and  with 
the  same  ease  the  whole  book  was  composed.  .  .  . 

"  A  visit  in  1858  to  Mr.  W.  E.  Forster  in  Wharf e- 
dale,  and  to  Mr.  Morrison  at  Malham,  gave  him  the 
local  setting  of  the  beautiful  opening  chapters.  For 

[vii] 


INTRODUCTION 

the  grandeur  of  the  scenery  of  Godale  Scar  and  Mai- 
ham  Cove  had  made  a  profound  impression  on  his 
mind,  as  did  the  beauty  of  the  Wharfe  below  Den- 
ton  Park. 

"  Places  he  had  seen,  and  many  more  he  had  read 
and  dreamed  of  in  his  father's  fine  library  of  voyages 
and  travels,  fairies  and  men  of  science,  fads  and 
foibles,  education  true  and  false,  Pandora's  box  and 
sanitary  science — a  matter  always  dear  to  his  heart 
— the  ways  of  beasts  and  birds,  fishes  and  insects, 
of  plant  and  tree  and  rock,  of  river  and  tide,  are 
all  interwoven  here  with  the  deepest  truths  of  life 
and  living,  of  morals  and  religion.  So  that  while  the 
book  enchants  the  child,  it  gives  the  wise  man  food 
for  thought.  .  .  . 

11  Happy  are  the  children  who  get  their  first  ideas 
of  the  marvels  of  nature  all  around  them  from  such 
a  lesson-book  as  this.  .  .  . 

"  And  perchance,  when  they  are  grown  men  and 
women,  and  like  Tom  have  won  their  spurs  in  the 
great  battle,  they  may  look  back  with  thankful  hearts 
to  certain  pages  in  The  Water-Babies;  pages  which 
taught  them,  while  as  little  children  they  read  a  fairy 
tale,  what  a  fine  thing  it  is  to  love  truth,  mercy, 
justice,  courage,  and  all  things  noble  and  of  good 
report." 

[  viii  ] 


INTRODUCTION 

Thus  Rose  G.  Kingsley,  in  a  preface  to  her 
father's  fairy  tale,  describes  the  impromptu  manner 
in  which  The  Water-Babies  was  written.  Dashed  off 
for  the  pleasure  of  his  own  little  son,  this  book  has 
charmed  and  entertained  thousands  of  children  for 
more  than  fifty  years,  and  has  undoubtedly  in  many 
cases  taught  "  what  a  fine  thing  it  is  to  love  truth, 
mercy,  justice,  courage,  and  all  things  noble  and  of 
good  report." 

THE  EDITOR. 


CONTENTS 


CHAPTER  I 
CHAPTER  II    . 
CHAPTER  III  . 
CHAPTER  IV  . 
CHAPTER  V    . 
CHAPTER  VI  . 
CHAPTER  VII 
CHAPTER  VIII 


PAGE 

I 

37 
67 

IO2 
129 
I65 
194 
229 


THE  WATER-BABIES 


THE  WATER- BABIES 

CHAPTER  I 

ONCE  upon  a  time  there  was  a  little  chimney- 
sweep, and  his  name  was  Tom.  That  is  a 
short  name,  and  you  have  heard  it  before, 
so  you  will  not  have  much  trouble  in  remembering 
it.  He  lived  in  a  great  town  in  the  North  country, 
where  there  were  plenty  of  chimneys  to  sweep,  and 
plenty  of  money  for  Tom  to  earn  and  his  master  to 
spend.  He  could  not  read  nor  wmte,  and  did  not 
care  to  do  either;  and  he  never  washed  himself,  for 
there  was  no  water  up  the  court  where  he  lived.  He 
had  never  been  taught  to  say  his  prayers.  He  never 
had  heard  of  God,  or  of  Christ,  except  in  words 
which  you  never  have  heard,  and  which  it  would 


THE    WATER-BABIES 

have  been  well  if  he  had  never  heard.  He  cried 
half  his  time,  and  laughed  the  other  half.  He  cried 
when  he  had  to  climb  the  dark  flues,  rubbing  his  poor 
knees  and  elbows  raw;  and  when  the  soot  got  into 
his  eyes,  which  it  did  every  day  in  the  week;  and 
when  his  master  beat  him,  which  he  did  every  day 
in  the  week;  and  when  he  had  not  enough  to  eat, 
which  happened  every  day  in  the  week  likewise. 
And  he  laughed  the  other  half  of  the  day,  when  he 
was  tossing  half  pennies  with  the  other  boys,  or 
playing  leap-frog  over  the  posts,  or  bowling  stones 
at  the  horses'  legs  as  they  trotted  by,  which  last  was 
excellent  fun,  when  there  was  a  wall  at  hand  behind 
which  to  hide.  As  for  chimney-sweeping,  and  being 
hungry,  and  being  beaten,  he  took  all  that  for  the 
way  of  the  world,  like  the  rain  and  snow  and  thun- 
der, and  stood  manfully  with  his  back  to  it  till  it  was 
over,  as  his  old  donkey  did  to  a  hail-storm;  and  then 
shook  his  ears  and  was  as  jolly  as  ever;  and  thought 
of  the  fine  times  coming,  when  he  would  be  a  man, 
and  a  master  sweep,  and  sit  in  the  public-house  with 
a  quart  of  beer  and  a  long  pipe,  and  play  cards  for 
silver  money,  and  wear  velveteens  and  ankle-jacks, 
and  keep  a  white  bull-dog  with  one  gray  ear,  and 
carry  her  puppies  in  his  pocket,  just  like  a  man.  And 
he  would  have  apprentices,  one,  two,  three,  if  he 

[2] 


THE    WATER-BABIES 

could.  How  he  would  bully  them,  and  knock  them 
about,  just  as  his  master  did  to  him;  and  make  them 
carry  home  the  soot  sacks,  while  he  rode  before  them 
on  his  donkey,  with  a  pipe  in  his  mouth  and  a  flower 
in  his  buttonhole,  like  a  king  at  the  head  of  his  army. 
Yes,  there  were  good  times  coming. 

One  day  a  smart  little  groom  rode  into  the  court 
where  Tom  lived.  Tom  was  just  hiding  behind  a 
wall,  to  heave  half  a  brick  at  his  horse's  legs  as  is 
the  custom  of  that  country  when  they  welcome 
strangers;  but  the  groom  saw  him,  and  halloed  to 
him  to  know  where  Mr.  Grimes,  the  chimney-sweep, 
lived.  Now,  Mr.  Grimes  was  Tom's  own  master, 
and  Tom  was  a  good  man  of  business,  and  always 
civil  to  customers,  so  he  put  the  half-brick  down 
quietly  behind  the  wall,  and  proceeded  to  take 
orders. 

Mr.  Grimes  was  to  come  up  next  morning  to  Sir 
John  Harthover's,  at  the  Place,  for  his  old  chimney- 
sweep was  gone  to  prison,  and  the  chimneys  wanted 
sweeping.  And  so  he  rode  away,  not  giving  Tom 
time  to  ask  what  the  sweep  had  gone  to  prison  for, 
which  was  a  matter  of  interest  to  Tom,  as  he  had 
been  in  prison  once  or  twice  himself.  Moreover,  the 
groom  looked  so  very  neat  and  clean,  with  his  drab 
gaiters,  drab  breeches,  drab  jacket,  snow-white  tie 

[3] 


THE   WATER-BABIES 

with  a  smart  pin  in  it,  and  clean  round  ruddy  face, 
that  Tom  was  offended  and  disgusted  at  his  appear- 
ance, and  considered  him  a  stuck-up  fellow,  who 
gave  himself  airs  because  he  wore  smart  clothes,  and 
other  people  paid  for  them;  and  went  behind  the 
wall  to  fetch  the  half-brick  after  all;  but  did  not, 


remembering  that  he  had  come  in  the  way  of  busi 
ness,  and  was,  as  it  were,  under  a  flag  of  truce. 

His  master  was  so  delighted  at  his  new  customer 
that  he  knocked  Tom  down  out  of  hand,  and  drank 
more  beer  that  night  than  he  usually  did  in  two,  in 
order  to  be  sure  of  getting  up  in  time  next  morning; 
for  the  more  a  man's  head  aches  when  he  wakes,  the 
more  glad  he  is  to  turn  out,  and  have  a  breath  of 
fresh  air.  And,  when  he  did  get  up  at  four  the  next 
morning,  he  knocked  Tom  down  again,  in  order  to 

[4] 


THE    WATER- BABIES 

teach  him  (as  young  gentlemen  used  to  be  taught  at 
public  schools)  that  he  must  be  an  extra  good  boy 
that  day,  as  they  were  going  to  a  very  great  house, 
and  might  make  a  very  good  thing  of  it,  if  they  could 
but  give  satisfaction. 

And  Tom  thought  so  likewise,  and,  indeed,  would 
have  done  and  behaved  his  best,  even  without  being 
knocked  down.  For,  of  all  places  upon  earth, 
Harthover  Place  (which  he  had  never  seen)  was  the 
most  wonderful,  and,  of  all  men  on  earth,  Sir  John 
(whom  he  had  seen,  having  been  sent  to  gaol  by 
him  twice)  was  the  most  awful. 

Harthover  Place  was  really  a  grand  place,  even 
for  the  rich  North  country;  with  a  park  full  of  deer, 
which  Tom  believed  to  be  monsters  who  were  in  the 
habit  of  eating  children;  with  miles  of  game-pre- 
serves, in  which  Mr.  Grimes  and  the  collier  lads 
poached  at  times,  on  which  occasions  Tom  saw  pheas- 
ants, and  wondered  what  they  tasted  like;  with  a 
noble  salmon-river,  in  which  Mr.  Grimes  and  his 
friends  would  have  liked  to  poach;  but  then  they 
must  have  got  into  cold  water,  and  that  they  did 
not  like  at  all.  In  short,  Harthover  was  a  grand 
place,  and  Sir  John  a  grand  old  man,  whom  even 
Mr.  Grimes  respected;  for  not  only  could  he  send 
Mr.  Grimes  to  prison  when  he  deserved  it,  as  he  did 

[5] 


THE    WATER-BABIES 

once  or  twice  a  week;  not  only  did  he  own  all  the 
land  about  for  miles;  not  only  was  he  a  jolly,  honest, 
sensible  squire,  as  ever  kept  a  pack  of  hounds,  who 
would  do  what  he  thought  right  by  his  neighbours, 
as  well  as  get  what  he  thought  right  for  himself; 
but,  what  was  more,  he  weighed  full  fifteen  stone, 
was  nobody  knew  how  many  inches  round  the  chest, 
and  could  have  thrashed  Mr.  Grimes  himself  in  fair 
fight,  which  very  few  folk  round  there  could  do,  and 
which  would  not  have  been  right  for  him  to  do,  as 
a  great  many  things  are  not  which  one  both  can  do, 
and  would  like  very  much  to  do.  So  Mr.  Grimes 
touched  his  hat  to  him  when  he  rode  through  the 
town. 

Now,  I  dare  say,  you  never  got  up  at  three  o'clock 
on  a  midsummer  morning.  Some  people  get  up  then 
because  they  want  to  catch  salmon;  and  some  because 
they  want  to  climb  Alps;  and  a  great  many  more 
because  they  must,  like  Tom.  But,  I  assure  you,  that 
three  o'clock  on  a  midsummer  morning  is  the  pleas- 
antest  time  of  all  the  twenty-four  hours,  and  all  the 
three  hundred  and  sixty-five  days;  and  why  every  one 
does  not  get  up  then,  I  never  could  tell,  save  that 
they  are  all  determined  to  spoil  their  nerves  and  their 
complexions  by  doing  all  night  what  they  might  just 
as  well  do  all  day.  But  Tom,  instead  of  going  out 

[6] 


THE    WATER- BABIES 

to  dinner  at  half-past  eight  at  night,  and  to  a  ball  at 
ten,  and  finishing  off  somewhere  between  twelve  and 
four,  went  to  bed  at  seven,  when  his  master  went  to 
the  public-house,  and  slept  like  a  dead  pig;  for  which 
reason  he  was  as  piert  as  a  game-cock  (who  always 
gets  up  early  to  wake  the  maids),  and  just  ready  to 
get  up  when  the  fine  gentlemen  and  ladies  were  just 
ready  to  go  to  bed. 

So  he  and  his  master  set  out;  Grimes  rode  the 
donkey  in  front,  and  Tom  and  the  brushes  walked 
behind;  out  of  the  court,  and  up  the  street,  past  the 
closed  window-shutters,  and  the  winking  weary 
policemen,  and  the  roofs  all  shining  gray  in  the  gray 
dawn. 

They  passed  through  the  pitmen's  village,  all  shut 
up  and  silent  now,  and  through  the  turnpike;  and 
then  they  were  out  in  the  real  country,  and  plodding 
along  the  black  dusty  road,  between  black  slag  walls, 
with  no  sound  but  the  groaning  and  thumping  of  the 
pit-engine  in  the  next  field.  But  soon  the  road  grew 
white,  and  the  walls  likewise;  and  at  the  wall's  foot 
grew  long  grass  and  gay  flowers,  all  drenched  with 
dew;  and  instead  of  the  groaning  of  the  pit-engine, 
they  heard  the  skylark  saying  his  matins  high  up  in 
the  air,  and  the  pit-bird  warbling  in  the  sedges,  as  he 
had  warbled  all  night  long. 

[7] 


THE    WATER-BABIES 

All  else  was  silent.  For  old  Mrs.  Earth  was  still 
fast  asleep;  and,  like  many  pretty  people,  she  looked 
still  prettier  asleep  than  awake.  The  great  elm-trees 
in  the  gold-green  meadows  were  fast  asleep  above, 
and  the  cows  fast  asleep  beneath  them ;  nay,  the  few 
clouds  which  were  about  were  fast  asleep  likewise, 
and  so  tired  that  they  had  lain  down  on  the  earth  to 
rest,  in  long  white  flakes  and  bars,  among  the  stems 
of  the  elm-trees,  and  along  the  tops  of  the  alders  by 
the  stream,  waiting  for  the  sun  to  bid  them  rise  and 
go  about  their  day's  business  in  the  clear  blue  over- 
head. 

On  they  went;  and  Tom  looked,  and  looked,  for 
he  never  had  been  so  far  into  the  country  before ;  and 
longed  to  get  over  a  gate,  and  pick  buttercups,  and 
look  for  birds'  nests  in  the  hedge;  but  Mr.  Grimes 
was  a  man  of  business,  and  would  not  have  heard  of 
that. 

Soon  they  came  up  with  a  poor  Irishwoman,  trudg- 
ing along  with  a  bundle  at  her  back.  She  had  a  gray 
shawl  over  her  head,  and  a  crimson  madder  petti- 
coat; so  you  may  be  sure  she  came  from  Galway. 
She  had  neither  shoes  nor  stockings,  and  limped 
along  as  if  she  were  tired  and  footsore;  but  she  was 
a  very  tall  handsome  woman,  with  bright  gray  eyes, 
and  heavy  black  hair  hanging  about  her  cheeks.  And 

[8] 


THE    WATER-BABIES 

she  took  Mr.  Grimes'  fancy  so  much,  that  when  he 
came  alongside  he  called  out  to  her: 

"  This  is  a  hard  road  for  a  gradely  foot  like  that. 
Will  ye  up,  lass,  and  ride  behind  me  ?  " 

But,  perhaps,  she  did  not  admire  Mr.  Grimes' 
look  and  voice;  for  she  answered  quietly: 

"  No,  thank  you:  I'd  sooner  walk  with  your  little 
lad  here." 

u  You  may  please  yourself,"  growled  Grimes,  and 
went  on  smoking. 

So  she  walked  beside  Tom,  and  talked  to  him,  and 
asked  him  where  he  lived,  and  what  he  knew,  and  all 
about  himself,  till  Tom  thought  he  had  never  met 
such  a  pleasant-spoken  woman.  And  she  asked  him, 
at  last,  whether  he  said  his  prayers !  and  seemed 
sad  when  he  told  her  that  he  knew  no  prayers  to 
say. 

Then  he  asked  her  where  she  lived,  and  she  said 
far  away  by  the  sea.  And  Tom  asked  her  about  the 
sea;  and  she  told  him  how  it  rolled  and  roared  over 
the  rocks  in  winter  nights,  and  lay  still  in  the  bright 
summer  days,  for  the  children  to  bathe  and  play  in 
it;  and  many  a  story  more,  till  Tom  longed  to  go  and 
see  the  sea,  and  bathe  in  it  likewise. 

At  last,  at  the  bottom  of  a  hill,  they  came  to  a 
spring;  not  such  a  spring  as  you  see  here,  which  soaks 

[9] 


THE   WATER- BABIES 

up  out  of  a  white  gravel  in  the  bog,  among  red  fly- 
catchers, and  pink  bottle-heath,  and  sweet  white 
orchis;  nor  such  a  one  as  you  may  see,  too,  here, 
which  bubbles  up  under  the  warm  sandbank  in  the 
hollow  lane,  by  the  great  tuft  of  lady  ferns,  and 
makes  the  sand  dance  reels  at  the  bottom,  day  and 
night,  all  the  year  round;  not  such  a  spring  as  either 
of  those;  but  a  real  North  country  limestone  foun- 
tain, like  one  of  those  in  Sicily  or  Greece,  where  the 
old  heathen  fancied  the  nymphs  sat  cooling  them- 
selves the  hot  summer's  day,  while  the  shepherds 
peeped  at  them  from  behind  the  bushes.  Out  of  a 
low  cave  of  rock,  at  the  foot  of  a  limestone  crag, 
the  great  fountain  rose,  quelling,  and  bubbling,  and 
gurgling,  so  clear  that  you  could  not  tell  where  the 
water  ended  and  the  air  began;  and  ran  away  under 
the  road,  a  stream  large  enough  to  turn  a  mill; 
among  blue  geranium,  and  golden  globe-flower,  and 
wild  raspberry,  and  the  bird-cherry  with  its  tassels  of 
snow. 

And  there  Grimes  stopped,  and  looked;  and  Tom 
looked  too.  Tom  was  wondering  whether  anything 
lived  in  that  dark  cave,  and  came  out  at  night  to  fly 
in  the  meadows.  But  Grimes  was  not  wondering  at 
all.  Without  a  word,  he  got  off  his  donkey,  and 
clambered  over  the  low  road  wall,  and  knelt  down, 

[10] 


THE    WATER-BABIES 


and  began  dipping  his  ugly 
head  into  the  spring — and 
very  dirty  he  made  it. 

Tom  was  picking  the 
flowers  as  fast  as  he  could. 
The  Irishwoman  helped 
him,  and  showed  him  how 
to  tie  them  up;  and  a  very 
pretty  nosegay  they  had 
made  between  them.  But  when  he  saw  Grimes  actu- 
ally wash,  he  stopped,  quite  astonished;  and  when 
Grimes  had  finished,  and  began  shaking  his  ears  to 
dry  them,  he  said: 

"  Why,  master,  I  never  saw  you  do  that  before." 

"  Nor  will  again,  most  likely.  'Twasn't  for 
cleanliness  I  did  it,  but  for  coolness.  I'd  be  ashamed 
to  want  washing  every  week  or  so,  like  any  smutty 
collier  lad." 

"  I  wish  I  might  go  and  dip  my  head  in,"  said  poor 
little  Tom.  "  It  must  be  as  good  as  putting  it  under 
the  town-pump ;  and  there  is  no  beadle  here  to  drive 
a  chap  away." 

"Thou  come  along,"  said  Grimes;  "what  dost 
want  with  washing  thyself?  Thou  did  not  drink  half 
a  gallon  of  beer  last  night,  like  me." 

"  I  don't  care  for  you,"  said  naughty  Tom,  and 


THE    WATER-BABIES 

ran  down  to   the  stream,   and  began   washing  his 
face. 

Grimes  was  very  sulky,  because  the  woman  pre- 
ferred Tom's  company  to  his;  so  he  dashed  at  him 
with  horrid  words,  and  tore  him  up  from  his  knees, 
and  began  beating  him.  But  Tom  was  accustomed 
to  that,  and  got  his  head  safe  between  Mr.  Grimes' 
legs,  and  kicked  his  shins  with  all  his  might. 

"  Are  you  not  ashamed  of  yourself,  Thomas 
Grimes?"  cried  the  Irishwoman  over  the  wall. 

Grimes  looked  up,  startled  at  her  knowing  his 
name;  but  all  he  answered  was,  "  No,  nor  never  was 
yet;  "  and  went  on  beating  Tom. 

"  True  for  you.  If  you  ever  had  been  ashamed 
of  yourself,  you  would  have  gone  over  into  Vendale 
long  ago." 

14  What  do  you  know  about  Vendale  ?  "  shouted 
Grimes ;  but  he  left  off  beating  Tom. 

"  I  know  about  Vendale,  and  about  you,  too.  I 
know,  for  instance,  what  happened  in  Aldermire 
Copse,  by  night,  two  years  ago  come  Martinmas." 

'You  do?"  shouted  Grimes;  and  leaving  Tom, 
he  climbed  up  over  the  wall,  and  faced  the  woman. 
Tom  thought  he  was  going  to  strike  her;  but  she 
looked  him  too  full  and  fierce  in  the  face  for  that. 

'  Yes;  I  was  there,"  said  the  Irishwoman  quietly. 
[12] 


THE    WATER-BABIES 

"  You  are  no  Irishwoman,  by  your  speech,"  said 
Grimes,  after  many  bad  words. 

"Never  mind  who  I  am.  I  saw  what  I  saw; 
and  if  you  strike  that  boy  again,  I  can  tell  what  I 
know." 

Grimes  seemed  quite  cowed,  and  got  on  his  don- 
key without  another  word. 

"  Stop  !  "  said  the  Irishwoman.  "  I  have  one 
more  word  for  you  both;  for  you  will  both  see  me 
again  before  all  is  over.  Those  that  wish  to  be 
clean,  clean  they  will  be;  and  those  that  wish  to  be 
foul,  foul  they  will  be.  Remember." 

And  she  turned  away,  and  through  a  gate  into  the 
meadow.  Grimes  stood  still  a  moment,  like  a  man 
who  had  been  stunned.  Then  he  rushed  after  her, 
shouting,  "  You  come  back."  But  when  he  got  into 
the  meadow,  the  woman  was  not  there. 

Had  she  hidden  away?  There  was  no  place  to 
hide  in.  But  Grimes  looked  about,  and  Tom  also, 
for  he  was  as  puzzled  as  Grimes  himself  at  her  dis- 
appearing so  suddenly;  but  look  where  they  would, 
she  was  not  there. 

Grimes  came  back  again,  as  silent  as  a  post,  for 
he  was  a  little  frightened;  and,  getting  on  his  don- 
key, filled  a  fresh  pipe,  and  smoked  away,  leaving 
Tom  in  peace. 


THE    WATER-BABIES 

And  now  they  had  gone  three  miles  and  more, 
and  came  to  Sir  John's  lodge-gates. 

Very  grand  lodges  they  were,  with  very  grand 
iron  gates  and  stone  gate-posts,  and  on  the  top  of 
each  a  most  dreadful  bogy,  all  teeth,  horns,  and  tail, 
which  was  the  crest  which  Sir  John's  ancestors  wore 
in  the  Wars  of  the  Roses;  and  very  prudent  men 
they  were  to  wear  it,  for  all  their  enemies  must  have 
run  for  their  lives  at  the  very  first  sight  of  them. 

Grimes  rang  at  the  gate,  and  out  came  a  keeper 
on  the  spot,  and  opened. 

"  I  was  told  to  expect  thee,"  he  said.  "  Now 
thou'lt  be  so  good  as  to  keep  to  the  main  avenue, 
and  not  let  me  find  a  hare  or  a  rabbit  on  thee  when 
thou  comest  back.  I  shall  look  sharp  for  one,  I  tell 
thee." 

"  Not  if  it's  in  the  bottom  of  the  soot-bag,"  quoth 
Grimes,  and  at  that  he  laughed;  and  the  keeper 
laughed  and  said: 

"  If  that's  thy  sort,  I  may  as  well  walk  up  with 
thee  to  the  hall." 

"  I  think  thou  best  had.  It's  thy  business  to  see 
after  thy  game,  man,  and  not  mine." 

So  the  keeper  went  with  them;  and,  to  Tom's  sur- 
prise, he  and  Grimes  chatted  together  all  the  way 
quite  pleasantly.  He  did  not  know  that  a  keeper  is 

[14] 


THE    WATER-BABIES 

only  a  poacher  turned  outside  in,  and  a  poacher  a 
keeper  turned  inside  out. 

They  walked  up  a  great  lime  avenue,  a  full  mile 
long,  and  between  their  stems  Tom  peeped  trembling 
at  the  horns  of  the  sleeping  deer,  which  stood  up 
among  the  ferns.  Tom  had  never  seen  such  enor- 
mous trees,  and  as  he  looked  up  he  fancied  that  the 
blue  sky  rested  on  their  heads.  But  he  was  puzzled 
very  much  by  a  strange  murmuring  noise,  which  fol- 
lowed them  all  the  way.  So  much  puzzled,  that  at 
last  he  took  courage  to  ask  the  keeper  what  it  was. 

He  spoke  very  civilly,  and  called  him  Sir,  for  he 
was  horribly  afraid  of  him,  which  pleased  the 
keeper,  and  he  told  him  that  they  were  the  bees  about 
the  lime  flowers. 

"  What  are  bees?  "  asked  Tom. 

"  What  make  honey." 

"What  is  honey?  "  asked  Tom. 

"  Thou  hold  thy  noise,"  said  Grimes. 

"  Let  the  boy  be,"  said  the  keeper.  "  He's  a  civil 
young  chap  now,  and  that's  more  than  he'll  be  long 
if  he  bides  with  thee." 

Grimes  laughed,  for  he  took  that  for  a  compli- 
ment. 

"  I  wish  I  were  a  keeper,"  said  Tom,  "  to  live  in 
such  a  beautiful  place,  and  wear  green  velveteens 


THE    WATER-BABIES 

and  have   a   real  dog-whistle   at   my   button,   like 

you." 

The  keeper  laughed;  he  was  a  kind-hearted  fellow 

enough. 

"  Let  well  alone,  lad,  and  ill  too  at  times.  Thy 
life's  safer  than  mine  at  all  events,  eh,  Mr. 
Grimes?  " 

And  Grimes  laughed  again,  and  then  the  two  men 
began  talking  quite  low.  Tom  could  hear,  though, 
that  it  was  about  some  poaching  fight;  and  at  last 
Grimes  said  surlily,  "  Hast  thou  anything  against 
me?" 

11  Not  now." 

"  Then  don't  ask  me  any  questions  till  thou  hast, 
for  I  am  a  man  of  honour." 

And  at  that  they  both  laughed  again,  and  thought 
it  a  very  good  joke. 

And  by  this  time  they  were  come  up  to  the  great 
iron  gates  in  front  of  the  house;  and  Tom  stared 
through  them  at  the  rhododendrons  and  azaleas, 
which  were  all  in  flower;  and  then  at  the  house  itself, 
and  wondered  how  many  chimneys  there  were  in 
it,  and  how  long  ago  it  was  built,  and  what  was  the 
man's  name  that  built  it,  and  whether  he  got  much 
money  for  his  job? 

But  Tom  and  his  master  did  not  go  in  through  the 


THE    WATER- BABIES 

great  iron  gates,  as  if  they  had  been  Dukes  or  Bish- 
ops, but  round  the  back  way,  and  a  very  long  way 
round  it  was;  and  into  a  little  back-door,  where  the 
ash-boy  let  them  in,  yawning  horribly;  and  then  in  a 
passage  the  housekeeper  met  them,  in  such  a  flow- 
ered chintz  dressing-gown,  that  Tom  mistook  her 
for  My  Lady  herself,  and  she  gave  Grimes  solemn 
orders  about  "  You  will  take  care  of  this,  and  take 
care  of  that,"  as  if  he  was  going  up  the  chimneys, 
and  not  Tom.  And  Grimes  listened,  and  said  every 
now  and  then,  under  his  voice,  "  You'll  mind  that, 
you  little  beggar?"  and  Tom  did  mind,  all  at  least 
that  he  could.  And  then  the  housekeeper  turned 
them  into  a  grand  room,  all  covered  up  in  sheets 
of  brown  paper,  and  bade  them  begin,  in  a  lofty  and 
tremendous  voice;  and  so  after  a  whimper  or  two, 
and  a  kick  from  his  master,  into  the  grate  Tom 
went,  and  up  the  chimney,  while  a  housemaid  stayed 
in  the  room  to  watch  the  furniture;  to  whom  Mr. 
Grimes  paid  many  playful  and  chivalrous  compli' 
ments,  but  met  with  very  slight  encouragement  in 
return. 

How  many  chimneys  Tom  swept  I  cannot  say;  but 
he  swept  so  many  that  he  got  quite  tired,  and  puzzled 
too,  for  they  were  not  like  the  town  flues  to  which  he 
was  accustomed,  but  such  as  you  would  find — if  you 

[17] 


THE    WATER-BABIES 

would  only  get  up  them  and  look,  which  perhaps  you 
would  not  like  to  do — in  old  country-houses,  large 
and  crooked  chimneys,  which  had  been  altered  again 
and  again,  till  they  ran  one  into  another.  So  Tom 
fairly  lost  his  way  in  them;  not  that  he  cared  much 
for  that,  though  he  was  in  pitchy  darkness,  for  he 
was  as  much  at  home  in  a  chimney  as  a  mole  is 
underground;  but  at  last,  coming  down  as  he  thought 
the  right  chimney,  he  came  down  the  wrong  one,  and 
found  himself  standing  on  the  hearthrug  in  a  room 
the  like  of  which  he  had  never  seen  before. 

Tom  had  never  seen  the  like.  He  had  never  been 
in  gentlefolks'  rooms  but  when  the  carpets  were  all 
up,  and  the  curtains  down,  and  the  furniture  huddled 
together  under  a  cloth,  and  the  pictures  covered  with 
aprons  and  dusters;  and  he  had  often  enough  won- 
dered what  the  rooms  were  like  when  they  were  all 
ready  for  the  quality  to  sit  in.  And  now  he  saw,  and 
he  thought  the  sight  very  pretty. 

The  room  was  all  dressed  in  white, — white  win- 
dow-curtains, white  bed-curtains,  white  furniture, 
and  white  walls,  with  just  a  few  lines  of  pink  here 
and  there.  The  carpet  was  all  over  gay  little  flow- 
ers; and  the  walls  were  hung  with  pictures  in  gilt 
frames,  which  amused  Tom  very  much.  There  were 
pictures  of  ladies  and  gentlemen,  and  pictures  of 

tit] 


THE    WATER-BABIES 

horses  and  dogs.  The  horses  he  liked;  but  the  dogs 
he  did  not  care  for  much,  for  there  were  no  bull- 
dogs among  them,  not  even  a  terrier.  But  the  two 
pictures  which  took  his  fancy  most  were,  one  a  man 
in  long  garments,  with  little  children  and  their 
mothers  round  him,  who  was  laying  his  hand  upon 
the  children's  heads.  That  was  a  very  pretty  pic- 
ture, Tom  thought,  to  hang  in  a  lady's  room.  For 


he  could  see  that  it  was  a  lady's  room  by  the  dresses 
which  lay  about. 

The  other  picture  was  that  of  a  man  nailed  to  a 
cross,  which  surprised  Tom  much.  He  fancied  that 
he  had  seen  something  like  it  in  a  shop-window.  But 
why  was  it  there?  "Poor  man,"  thought  Tom, 
"  and  he  looks  so  kind  and  quiet.  But  why  should 
the  lady  have  such  a  sad  picture  as  that  in  her  room? 
Perhaps  it  was  some  kinsman  of  hers,  who  had  been 

[19] 


THE    WATER-BABIES 

murdered  by  the  savages  in  foreign  parts,  and  she 
kept  it  there  for  a  remembrance."  And  Tom  felt 
sad,  and  awed,  and  turned  to  look  at  something 
else. 

The  next  thing  he  saw,  and  that  too  puzzled  him, 
was  a  washing-stand,  with  ewers  and  basins,  and 
soap  and  brushes,  and  towels,  and  a  large  bath  full 
of  clean  water — what  a  heap  of  things  all  for  wash- 
ing! "She  must  be  a  very  dirty  lady,"  thought 
Tom,  "  by  my  master's  rule,  to  want  as  much  scrub- 
bing as  all  that.  But  she  must  be  very  cunning  to 
put  the  dirt  out  of  the  way  so  well  afterwards,  for 
I  don't  see  a  speck  about  the  room,  not  even  on  the 
very  towels." 

And  then,  looking  toward  the  bed,  he  saw  that 
dirty  lady,  and  held  his  breath  with  astonishment. 

Under  the  snow-white  coverlet,  upon  the  snow- 
white  pillow,  lay  the  most  beautiful  little  girl  that 
Tom  had  ever  seen.  Her  cheeks  were  almost  as 
white  as  the  pillow,  and  her  hair  was  like  threads  of 
gold  spread  all  about  over  the  bed.  She  might  have 
been  as  old  as  Tom,  or  maybe  a  year  or  two  older; 
but  Tom  did  not  think  of  that.  He  thought  only 
of  her  delicate  skin  and  golden  hair,  and  wondered 
whether  she  was  a  real  live  person,  or  one  of  the 
wax  dolls  he  had  seen  in  the  shops.  But  when  he 

[20] 


THE    WATER- BABIES 

saw  her  breathe,  he  made  up  his  mind  that  she  was 
alive,  and  stood  staring  at  her,  as  if  sh^.  had  been 
an  angel  out  of  heaven. 

No.  She  cannot  be  dirty.  She  never  could  have 
been  dirty,  thought  Tom  to  himself.  And  then  he 
thought,  "  And  are  all  people  like  that  when  they  are 
washed?"  And  he  looked  at  his  own  wrist,  and 
tried  to  rub  the  soot  off,  and  wondered  whether  it 
ever  would  come  off.  "  Certainly  I  should  look 
much  prettier  then,  if  I  grew  at  all  like  her." 

And  looking  round,  he  suddenly  saw,  standing 
close  to  him,  a  little  ugly,  black,  ragged  figure,  with 
bleared  eyes  and  grinning  white  teeth.  He  turned 
on  it  angrily.  What  did  such  a  little  black  ape  want 
in  that  sweet  young  lady's  room?  And  behold,  it 
was  himself,  reflected  in  a  great  mirror  the  like  of 
which  Tom  had  never  seen  before. 

And  Tom,  for  the  first  time  in  his  life,  found  out 
that  he  was  dirty;  and  burst  into  tears  with  shame 
and  anger;  and  turned  to  sneak  up  the  chimney  again 
and  hide;  and  upset  the  fender  and  threw  the  fire- 
irons  down,  with  a  noise  as  of  ten  thousand  tin  ket- 
tles tied  to  ten  thousand  mad  dogs'  tails. 

Up  jumped  the  little  white  lady  in  her  bed,  and, 
seeing  Tom,  screamed  as  shrill  as  any  peacock.  In 
rushed  a  stout  old  nurse  from  the  next  room,  and 

[M] 


THE   WATER-BABIES 

seeing  Tom  likewise,  made  up  her  mind  that  he  had 
come  to  rcb,  plunder,  destroy,  and  burn;  and  dashed 
at  him,  as  he  lay  over  the  fender,  so  fast  that  she 
caught  him  by  the  jacket. 

But  she  did  not  hold  him.  Tom  had  been  in  a 
policeman's  hands  many  a  time,  and  out  of  them  too, 
what  is  more;  and  he  would  have  been  ashamed  to 
face  his  friends  for  ever  if  he  had  been  stupid 
enough  to  be  caught  by  an  old  woman;  so  he  doubled 
under  the  good  lady's  arm,  across  the  room,  and  out 
of  the  window  in  a  moment. 

He  did  not  need  to  drop  out,  though  he  would 
have  done  so  bravely  enough.  Nor  even  to  let  him- 
self down  a  spout,  which  would  have  been  an  old 
game  to  him;  for  once  he  got  up  by  a  spout  to  the 
church  roof,  he  said  to  take  jackdaws'  eggs,  but  the 
policeman  said  to  steal  lead;  and,  when  he  was  seen 
on  high,  sat  there  till  the  sun  got  too  hot;  and  came 
down  by  another  spout,  leaving  the  policemen  to  go 
back  to  the  stationhouse  and  eat  their  dinners. 

But  all  under  the  window  spread  a  tree,  with  great 
leaves  and  sweet  white  flowers,  almost  as  big  as  his 
head.  It  was  magnolia,  I  suppose;  but  Tom  knew 
nothing  about  that,  and  cared  less;  for  down  the  tree 
he  went,  like  a  cat,  and  across  the  garden  lawn,  and 
over  the  iron  railings,  and  up  the  park  towards  the 

[22] 


THE    WATER-BABIES 

wood,  leaving  the  old  nurse  to  scream  murder  and 
fire  at  the  window. 

The  under  gardener,  mowing,  saw  Tom,  and 
threw  down  his  scythe;  caught  his  leg  in  it,  and  cut 
his  shin  open,  whereby  he  kept  his  bed  for  a  week; 
but  in  his  hurry  he  never  knew  it,  and  gave  chase  to 
poor  Tom.  The  dairymaid  heard  the  noise,  got  the 
churn  between  her  knees,  and  tumbled  over  it,  spill- 
ing all  the  cream;  and  yet  she  jumped  up,  and  gave 
chase  to  Tom.  A  groom  cleaning  Sir  John's  hack 
at  the  stables  let  him  go  loose,  whereby  he  kicked 
himself  lame  in  five  minutes ;  but  he  ran  out  and  gave 
chase  to  Tom.  Grimes  upset  the  soot-sack  in  the 
new-gravelled  yard,  and  spoilt  it  all  utterly;  but  he 
ran  out  and  gave  chase  to  Tom.  The  old  steward 
opened  the  park-gate  in  such  a  hurry,  that  he  hung 
up  his  pony's  chin  upon  the  spikes,  and,  for  aught 
I  know,  it  hangs  there  still;  but  he  jumped  off,  and 
gave  chase  to  Tom.  The  ploughman  left  his  horses 
at  the  headland,  and  one  jumped  over  the  fence,  and 
pulled  the  other  into  the  ditch,  plough  and  all;  but 
he  ran  on,  and  gave  chase  to  Tom.  The  keeper, 
who  was  taking  a  stoat  out  of  a  trap,  let  the  stoat 
go,  and  caught  his  own  finger;  but  he  jumped  up, 
and  ran  after  Tom;  and  considering  what  he  said, 
and  how  he  looked,  I  should  have  been  sorry  for 


THE    WATER-BABIES 

Tom  if  he  had  caught  him.  Sir  John  looked  out 
of  his  study  window  (for  he  was  an  early  old  gentle- 
man) and  up  at  the  nurse,  and  a  marten  dropped 
mud  in  his  eye,  so  that  he  had  at  last  to  send  for 
the  doctor;  and  yet  he  ran  out,  and  gave  chase  to 
Tom.  The  Irishwoman,  too,  was  walking  up  to  the 
house  to  beg, — she  must  have  got  round  by  some  by- 
way,— but  she  threw  away  her  bundle,  and  gave 
chase  to  Tom  likewise.  Only  my  Lady  did  not  give 
chase;  for  when  she  had  put  her  head  out  of  the 
window,  her  night-wig  fell  into  the  garden,  and  she 
had  to  ring  up  her  lady's-maid,  and  send  her  down 
for  it  privately,  which  quite  put  her  out  of  the  run- 
ning, so  that  she  came  in  nowhere,  and  is  conse- 
quently not  placed. 

In  a  word,  never  was  there  heard  at  Hall  Place — 
not  even  when  the  fox  was  killed  in  the  conservatory, 
among  acres  of  broken  glass,  and  tons  of  smashed 
flower-pots — such  a  noise,  row,  hubbub,  babel, 
shindy,  hullabaloo,  stramash,  charivari,  and  total 
contempt  of  dignity,  repose,  and  order,  as  that  day, 
when  Grimes,  the  gardener,  the  groom,  the  dairy- 
maid, Sir  John,  the  steward,  the  ploughman,  the 
keeper,  and  the  Irishwoman,  all  ran  up  the  park, 
shouting  "  Stop  thief,"  in  the  belief  that  Tom  had  at 
least  a  thousand  pounds'  worth  of  jewels  in  his  empty 

[24] 


THE    WATER- BABIES 

pockets;  and  the  very  magpies  and  jays  followed 
Tom  up,  screaking  and  screaming,  as  if  he  were  a 
hunted  fox,  beginning  to  droop  his  brush. 

And  all  the  while  poor  Tom  paddled  up  the  park 
with  his  little  bare  feet,  like  a  small  black  gorilla 
fleeing  to  the  forest.  Alas  for  him!  there  was  no 
big  father  gorilla  therein  to  take  his  part — to  scratch 
out  the  gardener's  inside  with  one  paw,  toss  the 
dairymaid  into  a  tree  with  another,  and  wrench  off 
Sir  John's  head  with  a  third,  while  he  cracked  the 
keeper's  skull  with  his  teeth  as  easily  as  if  it  had 
been  a  cocoanut  or  a  paving-stone. 

However,  Tom  did  not  remember  ever  having  had 
a  father;  so  he  did  not  look  for  one,  and  expected 
to  have  to  take  care  of  himself;  while  as  for  run- 
ning, he  could  keep  up  for  a  couple  of  miles  with 
any  stagecoach,  if  there  was  the  chance  of  a  copper 
or  a  cigar-end,  and  turn  coach-wheels  on  his  hands 
and  feet  ten  times  following,  which  is  more  than  you 
can  do.  Wherefore  his  pursuers  found  it  very  diffi- 
cult to  catch  him;  and  we  will  hope  that  they  did 
not  catch  him  at  all. 

Tom,  of  course,  made  for  the  woods.  He  had 
never  been  in  a  wood  in  his  life;  but  he  was  sharp 
enough  to  know  that  he  might  hide  in  a  bush,  or 
swarm  up  a  tree,  and,  altogether,  had  more  chance 


THE    WATER- BABIES 

there  than  in  the  open.  If  he  had  not  known  that, 
he  would  have  been  foolisher  than  a  mouse  or  a 
minnow. 

But  when  he  got  into  the  wood,  he  found  it  a  very 
different  sort  of  place  from  what  he  had  fancied. 
He  pushed  into  a  thick  cover  of  rhododendrons,  and 
found  himself  at  once  caught  in  a  trap.  The  boughs 
laid  hold  of  his  legs  and  arms,  poked  him  in  his  face 
and  his  stomach,  made  him  shut  his  eyes  tight 
(though  that  was  no  great  loss,  for  he  could  not 
see  at  best  a  yard  before  his  nose)  ;  and  when  he  got 
through  the  rhododendrons,  the  hassock-grass  and 
sedges  tumbled  him  over,  and  cut  his  poor  little 
fingers  afterwards  most  spitefully;  the  birches 
birched  him  soundly. 

11 1  must  get  out  of  this,"  thought  Tom,  "  or  I 
shall  stay  here  till  somebody  comes  to  help  me — 
which  is  just  what  I  don't  want." 

But  how  to  get  out  was  the  difficult  matter.  And 
indeed  I  don't  think  he  would  ever  have  got  out  at 
all,  but  have  stayed  there  till  the  cock-robins  covered 
him  with  leaves,  if  he  had  not  suddenly  run  his  head 
against  a  wall. 

Now  running  your  head  against  a  wall  is  not 
pleasant,  especially  if  it  is  a  loose  wall,  with  the 
stones  all  set  on  edge,  and  a  sharp  cornered  one  hits 

[26] 


THE    WATER-BABIES 

you  between  the  eyes  and  makes  you  see  all  manner 
of  beautiful  stars.  The  stars  are  very  beautiful, 
certainly;  but  unfortunately  they  go  in  the  twenty- 
thousandth  part  of  a  split  second,  and  the  pain  which 
comes  after  them  does  not.  And  so  Tom  hurt  his 
head;  but  he  was  a  brave  boy,  and  did  not  mind  that 
a  penny.  He  guessed  that  over  the  wall  the  cover 
would  end;  and  up  it  he  went,  and  over  like  a 
squirrel. 

And  there  he  was,  out  on  the  great  grouse-moors, 
which  the  country  folk  called  Harthover  Fell- 
heather  and  bog  and  rock,  stretching  away  and  u]\ 
up  to  the  very  sky. 

Now,  Tom  was  a  cunning  little  fellow — as  cun- 
ning as  an  old  Exmoor  stag.  Why  not?  Though  he 
was  but  ten  years  old,  he  had  lived  longer  than  most 
stags,  and  had  more  wits  to  start  with  into  the 
bargain. 

He  knew  as  well  as  a  stag  that  if  he  backed  he 
might  throw  the  hounds  out.  So  the  first  thing  he 
did  when  he  was  over  the  wall  was  to  make  the 
neatest  double  sharp  to  his  right,  and  run  along 
under  the  wall  for  nearly  half  a  mile. 

Whereby  Sir  John,  and  the  keeper,  and  the  stew- 
ard, and  the  gardener,  and  the  ploughman,  and  the 
dairymaid,  and  all  the  hue-and-cry  together,  went  on 

[27] 


THE   WATER-BABIES 

ahead  half  a  mile  in  the  very  opposite  direction,  and 
inside  the  wall,  leaving  him  a  mile  off  on  the  outside; 
while  Tom  heard  their  shouts  die  away  in  the  woods 
and  chuckled  to  himself  merrily. 

At  last  he  came  to  a  dip  in  the  land,  and  went  to 
the  bottom  of  it,  and  then  he  turned  bravely  away 
from  the  wall  and  up  the  moor;  for  he  knew  that  he 
had  put  a  hill  between  him  and  his  enemies,  and  could 
go  on  without  their  seeing  him. 

But  the  Irishwoman,  alone  of  them  all,  had  seen 
which  way  Tom  went.  She  had  kept  ahead  of  every 
one  the  whole  time ;  and  yet  she  neither  walked  nor 
ran.  She  went  along  quite  smoothly  and  gracefully, 
while  her  feet  twinkled  past  each  other  so  fast  that 
you  could  not  see  which  was  foremost;  till  every  one 
asked  the  other  who  the  strange  woman  was;  and 
all  agreed,  for  want  of  anything  better  to  say,  that 
she  must  be  in  league  with  Tom. 

But  when  she  came  to  the  plantation,  they  lost 
sight  of  her ;  and  they  could  do  no  less.  For  she  went 
quietly  over  the  wall  after  Tom,  and  followed  him 
wherever  he  went.  Sir  John  and  the  rest  saw  no 
more  of  her;  and  out  of  sight  was  out  of  mind. 

And  now  Tom  was  right  away  into  the  heather. 
There  were  rocks  and  stones  lying  about  everywhere, 
and  instead  of  the  moor  growing  flat  as  he  went 

[28] 


THE    WATER- BABIES 

upwards,  it  grew  more  and  more  broken  and  hilly, 
but  not  so  rough  but  that  little  Tom  could  jog  along 
well  enough,  and  find  time,  too,  to  stare  about  at  the 
strange  place,  which  was  like  a  new  world  to  him. 

He  saw  great  spiders  there,  with  crowns  and 
crosses  marked  on  their  backs,  who  sat  in  the  mid- 
dle of  their  webs,  and  when  they  saw  Tom  coming, 
shook  them  so  fast  they  they  became  invisible.  Then 
he  saw  lizards,  brown  and  gray  and  green,  and 
thought  they  were  snakes,  and  would  sting  him;  but 
they  were  as  much  frightened  as  he,  and  shot  away 
into  the  heath.  And  then,  under  a  rock,  he  saw  a 
pretty  sight — a  great  brown,  sharp-nosed  creature, 
with  a  white  tag  to  her  brush,  and  round  her  four 
or  five  smutty  little  cubs,  the  funniest  fellows  Tom 
ever  saw.  She  lay  on  her  back,  rolling  about,  and 
stretching  out  her  legs  and  head  and  tail  in  the 
bright  sunshine;  and  the  cubs  jumped  over  her,  and 
ran  round  her,  and  nibbled  her  paws,  and  lugged 
her  about  by  the  tail;  and  she  seemed  to  enjoy  it 
mightily.  But  one  selfish  little  fellow  stole  away 
from  the  rest  to  a  dead  crow  close  by,  and  dragged 
it  off  to  hide  it,  though  it  was  nearly  as  big  as  he 
was.  Whereat  all  his  little  brothers  set  off  after  him 
in  full  cry,  and  saw  Tom ;  and  then  all  ran  back,  and 
up  jumped  Mrs.  Vixen,  and  caught  one  up  in  her 

[29] 


THE    WATER-BABIES 

mouth,  and  the  rest  toddled  after  her,  and  into  a 
dark  crack  in  the  rocks;  and  there  was  an  end  of  the 
show. 

And  next  he  had  a  fright;  for,  as  he  scrambled  up 
a  sandy  brow  —  whirr-poof-poof-cock-cock-kick — 
something  went  off  in  his  face,  with  a  most  horrid 
noise.  He  thought  the  ground  had  blown  up,  and 
the  end  of  the  world  come. 

And  when  he  opened  his  eyes  (for  he  shut  them 
very  tight)  it  was  only  an  old  cock-grouse,  who  had 
been  washing  himself  in  sand,  like  an  Arab,  for  want 
of  water;  and  who,  when  Tom  had  all  but  trodden 
on  him,  jumped  up  with  a  noise  like  the  express  train, 
leaving  his  wife  and  children  to  shift  for  themselves, 
like  an  old  coward,  and  went  off,  screaming  "  Cur- 
ru-u-uck,  cur-ru-u-uck — murder,  thieves,  fire — cur-u- 
uck-cock-kick — the  end  of  the  world  is  come — kick- 
kick-cock-kick."  He  was  always  fancying  that  the 
end  of  the  world  was  come,  when  anything  happened 
which  was  farther  off  than  the  end  of  his  own  nose. 
But  the  end  of  the  world  was  not  come ;  though  the 
old  grouse-cock  was  quite  certain  of  it. 

So  the  old  grouse  came  back  to  his  wife  and  family 
an  hour  afterwards,  and  said  solemnly,  "  Cock-cock- 
kick;  my  dears,  the  end  of  the  world  is  not  quite 
come;  but  I  assure  you  it  is  coming  the  day  after 

[30] 


THE    WATER- BABIES 

to-morrow — cock."  But  his  wife  had  heard  that  so 
often  that  she  knew  all  about  it,  and  a  little  more. 
And,  besides,  she  was  the  mother  of  a  family,  and 
had  seven  little  poults  to  wash  and  feed  every  day; 
and  that  made  her  very  practical,  and  a  little  sharp- 
tempered;  so  all  she  answered  was:  "Kick-kick- 
kick — go  and  catch  spiders,  go  and  catch  spiders — 
kick." 

So  Tom  went  on  and  on,  he  hardly  knew  why;  but 
he  liked  the  great  wide  strange  place,  and  the  cool 
fresh  bracing  air.  But  he  went  more  and  more 
slowly  as  he  got  higher  up  the  hill;  for  now  the 
ground  grew  very  bad  indeed.  Instead  of  soft  turf 
and  springy  heather,  he  met  great  patches  of  flat 
limestone  rock,  just  like  ill-made  pavements,  with 
deep  cracks  between  the  stones  and  ledges,  filled 
with  ferns;  so  he  had  to  hop  from  stone  to  stone, 
and  now  and  then  he  slipped  in  between,  and  hurt 
his  little  bare  toes,  though  they  were  tolerably  tough 
ones;  but  still  he  would  go  on  and  up,  he  could  not 
tell  why. 

What  would  Tom  have  said  if  he  had  seen,  walk- 
ing over  the  moor  behind  him,  the  very  same  Irish- 
woman who  had  taken  his  part  upon  the  road?  But 
whether  it  was  that  he  looked  too  little  behind  him, 
or  whether  it  was  that  she  kept  out  of  sight  behind 


THE    WATER-BABIES 

the  rocks  and  knolls,  he  never  saw  her,  though  she 
saw  him. 

And  now  he  began  to  get  a  little  hungry,  and 
very  thirsty;  for  he  had  run  a  long  way,  and  the 
sun  had  risen  high  in  heaven,  and  the  rock  was  as 
hot  as  an  oven,  and  the  air  danced  reels  over  it,  as 
it  does  over  a  limekiln,  till  everything  round  seemed 
quivering  and  melting  in  the  glare. 

But  he  could  see  nothing  to  eat  anywhere,  and 
still  less  to  drink. 

The  heath  was  full  of  bilberries  and  whimberries; 
but  they  were  only  in  flower  yet,  for  it  was  June. 
And  as  for  water,  who  can  find  that  on  the  top  of  a 
limestone  rock?  Now  and  then  he  passed  by  a 
deep  dark  swallow-hole,  going  down  into  the  earth, 
as  if  it  was  the  chimney  of  some  dwarf's  house  under- 
ground; and  more  than  once,  as  he  passed,  he  could 
hear  water  falling,  trickling,  tinkling,  many  many 
feet  below.  How  he  longed  to  get  down  to  it,  and 
cool  his  poor  baked  lips !  But,  brave  little  chimney- 
sweep as  he  was,  he  dared  not  climb  down  such 
chimneys  as  those. 

So  he  went  on  and  on,  till  his  head  spun  round 
with  the  heat,  and  he  thought  he  heard  church-bells 
ringing,  a  long  way  off. 

Ah!"  he  thought,   "where  there  is  a  church 

[32] 


u 


THE    WATER-BABIES 

there  will  be  houses  and  people;  and,  perhaps,  some 
one  will  give  me  a  bit  and  a  sup."  So  he  set  off 
again,  to  look  for  the  church;  for  he  was  sure  that 
he  heard  the  bells  quite  plain. 

And  in  a  minute  more,  when  he  looked  round,  he 
stopped  again,  and  said,  "  Why,  what  a  big  place  the 
world  is!  " 

And  so  it  was ;  for,  from  the  top  of  the  mountain 
he  could  see — what  could  he  not  see  ? 

Behind  him,  far  below,  was  Harthover,  and  the 
dark  woods,  and  the  shining  salmon  river;  and  on 
his  left,  far  below,  was  the  town,  and  the  smoking 
chimneys  of  the  collieries;  and  far,  far  away,  the 
river  widened  to  the  shining  sea;  and  little  white 
specks,  which  were  ships,  lay  on  its  bosom.  Before 
him  lay,  spread  out  like  a  map,  great  plains,  and 
farms,  and  villages,  amid  dark  knots  of  trees.  They 
all  seemed  at  his  very  feet;  but  he  had  sense  to  see 
that  they  were  long  miles  away. 

And  to  his  right  rose  moor  after  moor,  hill  after 
hill,  till  they  faded  away,  blue  into  blue  sky.  But 
between  him  and  those  moors,  and  really  at  his  very 
feet,  lay  something,  to  which,  as  soon  as  Tom  saw  it, 
he  determined  to  go,  for  that  was  the  place  for 
him. 

A  deep,  deep  green  and  rocky  valley,  very  narrow, 

[33] 


THE    WATER-BABIES 

and  filled  with  wood ;  but  through  the  wood,  hundreds 
of  feet  below  him,  he  could  see  a  clear  stream 
glance.  Oh,  if  he  could  but  get  down  to  that  stream ! 
Then,  by  the  stream,  he  saw  the  roof  of  a  little 
cottage,  and  a  little  garden  set  out  in  squares  and 
beds.  And  there  was  a  tiny  little  red  thing  moving 
in  the  garden,  no  bigger  than  a  fly.  As  Tom  looked 
down,  he  saw  that  it  was  a  woman  in  a  red  petticoat. 
Ah!  perhaps  she  would  give  him  something  to  eat. 
And  there  were  the  church-bells  ringing  again. 
Surely  there  must  be  a  village  down  there.  Well, 
nobody  would  know  him,  or  what  had  happened  at 
the  Place.  The  news  could  not  have  got  there  yet, 
even  if  Sir  John  had  set  all  the  policemen  in  the 
county  after  him;  and  he  could  get  down  there  in 
five  minutes. 

Tom  was  quite  right  about  the  hue-and-cry  not 
having  got  thither;  for  he  had  come,  without  know- 
ing it,  the  best  part  of  ten  miles  from  Harthover; 
but  he  was  wrong  about  getting  down  in  five  minutes, 
for  the  cottage  was  more  than  a  mile  off,  and  a  good 
thousand  feet  below. 

However,  down  he  went,  like  a  brave  little  man  as 
he  was,  though  he  was  very  footsore,  and  tired,  and 
hungry,  and  thirsty;  while  the  church-bells  rang  so 
loud,  he  began  to  think  that  they  must  be  inside 

[34] 


THE    WATER-BABIES 

his  own  head,  and  the  river  chimed  and  tinkled  far 
below;  and  this  was  the  song  which  it  sang: — 

Clear  and  cool,  clear  and  cool, 

By  laughing  shallow,  and  dreaming  pool; 
Cool  and  clear,  cool  and  clear, 
By  shining  shingle,  and  foaming  weir; 
Under  the  crag  where  the  ouzel  sings, 
And  the  ivied  wall  where  the  church-bell  rings, 

Undefiled,  for  the  undefiled; 
Play  by  me,  bathe  in  me,  mother  and  child. 

Dank  and  foul,  dank  and  foul, 
By  the  smoky  town  in  its  murky  cowl; 

Foul  and  dank,  foul  and  dank, 
By  wharf  and  sewer  and  slimy  bank; 
Darker  and  darker  the  farther  I  go, 
Baser  and  baser  the  richer  I  grow; 

Who  dare  sport  with  the  sin-defiled? 
Shrink  from  me,  turn  from  me,  mother  and 
child. 

Strong  and  free,  strong  and  free, 
The  floodgates  are  open,  away  to  the  sea, 

Free  and  strong,  free  and  strong, 
Cleansing  my  streams  as  I  hurry  along, 

[35] 


THE    WATER-BABIES 

To  the  golden  sands,  and  the  leaping  bar, 

And  the  taintless  tide  that  awaits  me  afar. 

As  I  lose  myself  in  the  infinite  main, 

Like  a  soul  that  has  sinned  and  is  pardoned  again. 

Undefiled,  for  the  unde filed; 
Play  by  me,  bathe  in  me,  mother  and  child. 

So  Tom  went  down;  and  all  the  while  he  never 
saw  the  Irishwoman  going  down  behind  him. 


[36] 


CHAPTER  II 

A/IILE  off,  and  a  thousand  feet  down. 
So  Tom  found  it;   though   it  seemed 
as  if  he  could  have  chucked  a  pebble  on 
to  the  back  of  the  woman  in  the  red  petticoat  who 
was  weeding  in  the  garden,  or  even  across  the  dale 
to  the  rocks  beyond.     For  the  bottom  of  the  valley 
was  just  one  field  broad,  and  on  the  other  side  ran 
the  stream ;  and  above  it,  gray  crag,  gray  down,  gray 
stair,  gray  moor  walled  up  to  heaven. 

A  quiet,  silent,  rich,  happy  place;  a  narrow  crack 
cut  deep  into  the  earth;  so  deep,  and  so  out  of  the 
way,  that  the  bad  bogies  can  hardly  find  it  out.  The 
name  of  the  place  is  Vendale. 

So  Tom  went  to  go  down ;  and  first  he  went  down 
three  hundred  feet  of  steep  heather,  mixed  up  with 
loose  brown  gritstone,  as  rough  as  a  file;  which  was 
not  pleasant  to  his  poor  little  heels,  as  he  came  bump, 
stump,  jump,  down  the  steep.  And  still  he  thought 
he  could  throw  a  stone  into  the  garden. 

Then  he  went  down  three  hundred  feet  of  lime- 
stone terraces,  one  below  the  other,  as  straight  as  if  a 

[37] 


THE    WATER-BABIES 

carpenter  had  ruled  them  with  his  ruler  and  then  cut 
them  out  with  his  chisel.  There  was  no  heath  there, 
but — 

First,  a  little  grass  slope,  covered  with  the  pret- 
tiest flowers,  rockrose  and  saxifrage,  and  thyme  and 
basil,  and  all  sorts  of  sweet  herbs. 

Then  bump  down  a  two-foot  step  of  limestone. 

Then  another  bit  of  grass  and  flowers. 

Then  bump  down  a  one-foot  step. 

Then  another  bit  of  grass  and  flowers  for  fifty 
yards,  as  steep  as  the  house-roof,  where  he  had  to 
slide  down  on  his  dear  little  tail. 

Then  another  step  of  stone,  ten  feet  high;  and 
there  he  had  to  stop  himself,  and  crawl  along  the 
edge  to  find  a  crack;  for  if  he  had  rolled  over,  he 
would  have  rolled  right  into  the  old  woman's  garden, 
and  frightened  her  out  of  her  wits. 

Then,  when  he  had  found  a  dark  narrow  crack, 
full  of  green-stalked  fern,  ouch  as  hangs  in  the 
basket  in  the  drawing-room,  and  had  crawled  down 
through  it,  with  knees  and  elbows,  as  he  would 
down  a  chimney,  there  was  another  grass  slope,  and 
another  step,  and  so  on,  till — oh,  dear  me !  I  wish 
it  was  all  over;  and  so  did  he.  And  yet  he  thought 
he  could  throw  a  stone  into  the  old  woman's  garden. 

At  last  he  came  to  a  bank  of  beautiful  shrubs; 

[38] 


THE    WATER-BABIES 

white-beam  with  its  great  silver-backed  leaves,  and 
mountain-ash,  and  oak;  and  below  them  cliff  and 
crag,  cliff  and  crag,  with  great  beds  of  crown-ferns 
and  wood-sedge;  while  through  the  shrubs  he  could 
see  the  stream  sparkling,  and  hear  it  murmur  on  the 
white  pebbles.  He  did  not  know  that  it  was  three 
hundred  feet  below. 

You  would  have  been  giddy,  perhaps,  at  looking 
down:  but  Tom  was  not.  He  was  a  brave  little 
chimney-sweep;  and  when  he  found  himself  on  the 
top  of  a  high  cliff,  instead  of  sitting  down  and 
crying,  he  said,  "  Ah,  this  will  just  suit  me !  "  though 
he  was  very  tired;  and  down  he  went,  by  stock  and 
stone,  sedge  and  ledge,  bush  and  rush,  as  if  he  had 
been  born  a  jolly  little  black  ape,  with  four  hands 
instead  of  two. 

And  all  the  while  he  never  saw  the  Irishwoman 
coming  down  behind  him. 

But  he  was  getting  terribly  tired  now.  The  burn- 
ing sun  on  the  fells  had  sucked  him  up;  but  the 
damp  heat  of  the  woody  crag  sucked  him  up  still 
more;  and  the  perspiration  ran  out  of  the  ends  of 
his  fingers  and  toes,  and  washed  him  cleaner  than  he 
had  been  for  a  whole  year.  But,  of  course,  he 
dirtied  everything  terribly  as  he  went.  There  has 
been  a  great  black  smudge  all  down  the  crag  ever 

[39] 


THE    WATER-BABIES 

since.  And  there  have  been  more  black  beetles  in 
Vendale  since  than  ever  were  known  before;  all,  of 
course,  owing  to  Tom's  having  blacked  the  original 
papa  of  them  all,  just  as  he  was  setting  off  to  be 
married,  with  a  sky-blue  coat  and  scarlet  leggings, 
as  smart  as  a  gardener's  dog  with  a  polyanthus  in 
his  mouth. 

At  last  he  got  to  the  bottom.  But,  behold,  it  was 
not  the  bottom — as  people  usually  find  when  they 
are  coming  down  a  mountain.  For  at  the  foot  of 
the  crag  were  heaps  and  heaps  of  fallen  limestone 
of  every  size  from  that  of  your  head  to  that  of  a 
stage-waggon,  with  holes  between  them  full  of  sweet 
heath-fern;  and  before  Tom  got  through  them,  he 
was  out  in  the  bright  sunshine  again ;  and  then  he  felt, 
once  for  all  and  suddenly,  as  people  generally  do, 
that  he  was  b-e-a-t,  beat. 

You  must  expect  to  be  beat  a  few  times  in  your 
life,  little  man,  if  you  live  such  a  life  as  a  man 
ought  to  live,  let  you  be  as  strong  and  healthy  as 
you  may:  and  when  you  are,  you  will  find  it  a  very 
ugly  feeling.  I  hope  that  that  day  you  may  have  a 
stout  staunch  friend  by  you  who  is  not  beat;  for,  if 
you  have  not,  you  had  best  lie  where  you  are,  and 
wait  for  better  times,  as  poor  Tom  did. 

He  could  not  get  on.  The  sun  was  burning,  and 
[40] 


THE    WATER-BABIES 

yet  he  felt  chill  all  over.  He  was  quite  empty,  and 
yet  he  felt  quite  sick.  There  was  but  two  hundred 
yards  of  smooth  pasture  between  him  and  the  cot- 
tage, and  yet  he  could  not  walk  down  it.  He  could 
hear  the  stream  murmuring  only  one  field  beyond  it, 
and  yet  it  seemed  to  him  as  if  it  was  a  hundred 
miles  off. 

He  lay  down  on  the  grass  till  the  beetles  ran 
over  him,  and  the  flies  settled  on  his  nose.  I  don't 
know  when  he  would  have  got  up  again,  if  the  gnats 
and  the  midges  had  not  taken  compassion  on  him. 
But  the  gnats  blew  their  trumpets  so  loud  in  his  ear, 
and  the  midges  nibbled  so  at  his  hands  and  face 
wherever  they  could  find  a  place  free  from  soot,  that 
at  last  he  woke  up,  and  stumbled  away,  down  over  a 
low  wall,  and  into  a  narrow  road,  and  up  to  the 
cottage-door. 

And  a  neat  pretty  cottage  it  was,  with  clipped  yew 
hedges  all  round  the  garden,  and  yews  inside  too, 
cut  into  peacocks  and  trumpets  and  teapots  and  all 
kinds  of  queer  shapes.  And  out  of  the  open  door 
came  a  noise  like  that  of  the  frogs  when  they  know 
that  it  is  going  to  be  scorching  hot  to-morrow — and 
how  they  know  that  I  don't  know,  and  you  don't 
know,  and  nobody  knows. 

He  came  slowly  up  to  the  open  door,  which  was 


THE    WATER-BABIES 

all  hung  round  with  clematis  and  roses;  and  then 
peeped  in,  half  afraid. 

And  there  sat  by  the  empty  fireplace,  which  was 
filled  with  a  pot  of  sweet  herbs,  the  nicest  old  woman 
that  ever  was  seen,  in  her  red  petticoat,  and  short 
dimity  bedgown,  and  clean  white  cap,  with  a  black 
silk  handkerchief  over  it,  tied  under  her  chin.  At 
her  feet  sat  the  grandfather  of  all  the  cats;  and 
opposite  her  sat,  on  two  benches,  twelve  or  fourteen 
neat,  rosy,  chubby  little  children,  learning  their 
Chris-cross-row;  and  gabble  enough  they  made  about 
it. 

Such  a  pleasant  cottage  it  was,  with  a  shiny  clean 
stone  floor,  and  curious  old  prints  on  the  walls,  and 
an  old  black  oak  sideboard  full  of  bright  pewter  and 
brass  dishes,  and  a  cuckoo  clock  in  the  corner,  which 
began  shouting  as  soon  as  Tom  appeared:  not  that  it 
was  frightened  at  Tom,  but  that  it  was  just  eleven 
o'clock. 

All  the  children  started  at  Tom's  dirty  black 
figure, — the  girls  began  to  cry,  and  the  boys  began 
to  laugh,  and  all  pointed  at  him  rudely  enough ;  but 
Tom  was  too  tired  to  care  for  that. 

"  What  art  thou,  and  what  dost  want?  "  cried  the 
old  dame.  "  A  chimney-sweep !  Away  with  thee ! 
I'll  have  no  sweeps  here." 

[42] 


THE    WATER- BABIES 

"  Water,"  said  poor  little  Tom,  quite  faint. 

"  Water?  There's  plenty  i'  the  beck,"  she  said, 
quite  sharply. 

"  But  I  can't  get  there ;  I'm  most  clemmed  with 
hunger  and  drought."  And  Tom  sank  down  upon 
the  door-step,  and  laid  his  head  against  the  post. 

And  the  old  dame  looked  at  him  through  her 
spectacles  one  minute,  and  two,  and  three;  and  then 
she  said,  "He's  sick;  and  a  bairn's  a  bairn,  sweep 
or  none." 

"  Water,"  said  Tom. 

"  God  forgive  me  !  "  and  she  put  by  her  spectacles, 
and  rose,  and  came  to  Tom.  "  Water's  bad  for 
thee;  I'll  give  thee  milk."  And  she  toddled  off  into 
the  next  room,  and  brought  a  cup  of  milk  and  a  bit 
of  bread. 

Tom  drank  the  milk  off  at  one  draught,  and  then 
looked  up,  revived. 

"Where  didst  come  from?"  said  the  dame. 

"  Over  Fell,  there,"  said  Tom,  and  pointed  up 
into  the  sky. 

"  Over  Harthover?  and  down  Lewthwaite  Crag? 
Art  sure  thou  art  not  lying?  " 

"Why  should  I?"  said  Tom,  and  leant  his  head 
against  the  post. 

u  And  how  got  ye  up  there?  " 

[431 


THE    WATER-BABIES 

"  I  came  over  from  the  Place ;  "  and  Tom  was  so 
tired  and  desperate  he  had  no  heart  or  time  to  think 
of  a  story,  so  he  told  all  the  truth  in  a  few  words. 

"  Bless  thy  little  heart!    And  thou  hast  not  been 
stealing,  then?" 
"  No." 

"Bless  thy  little  heart!  and  I'll  warrant  not. 
Why,  God's  guided  the  bairn,  because  he  was  inno- 
cent! Away  from  the  Place,  and  over  Harthover 
Fell,  and  down  Lewthwaite  Crag!  Who  ever  heard 
the  like,  if  God  hadn't  led  him?  Why  dost  not  eat 
thy  bread?" 
"  I  can't." 

"  It's  good  enough,  for  I  made  it  myself." 
"  I  can't,"  said  Tom,  and  he  laid  his  head  on  his 
knees,  and  then  asked — 
"Is  it  Sunday?" 
"  No,  then ;  why  should  it  be  ?  " 
"  Because  I  hear  the  church-bells  ringing  so." 
"  Bless  thy  pretty  heart !    The  bairn's  sick.    Come 
wi'  me,  and  I'll  hap  thee  up  somewhere.     If  thou 
wert  a  bit  cleaner  I'd  put  thee  in  my  own  bed,  for 
the  Lord's  sake.    But  come  along  here." 

But  when  Tom  tried  to  get  up,  he  was  so  tired 
and  giddy  that  she  had  to  help  him  and  lead  him. 
She  put  him  in  an  outhouse  upon  soft  sweet  hay 
[44] 


THE    WATER-BABIES 

and  an  old  rug,  and  bade  him  sleep  off  his  walk,  and 
she  would  come  to  him  when  school  was  over,  in  an 
hour's  time. 

And  so  she  went  in  again,  expecting  Tom  to  fall 
fast  asleep  at  once. 


But  Tom  did  not  fall  asleep. 

Instead  of  it  he  turned  and  tossed  and  kicked 
about  in  the  strangest  way,  and  felt  so  hot  all  over 
that  he  longed  to  get  into  the  river  and  cool  himself; 
and  then  he  fell  half  asleep,  and  dreamt  that  he 
heard  the  little  white  lady  crying  to  him,  u  Oh,  you're 
so  dirty;  go  and  be  washed;"  and  then  that  he 
heard  the  Irishwoman  saying,  "  Those  that  wish  to 
be  clean,  clean  they  will  be."  And  then  he  heard 
the  church-bells  ring  so  loud,  close  to  him  too,  that 
he  was  sure  it  must  be  Sunday,  in  spite  of  what  the 
old  dame  had  said;  and  he  would  go  to  church,  and 
see  what  a  church  was  like  inside,  for  he  had  never 
been  in  one,  poor  little  fellow,  in  all  his  life.  But 
the  people  would  never  let  him  come  in,  all  over  soot 

[45] 


THE   WATER-BABIES 

and  dirt  like  that.  He  must  go  to  the  river  and 
wash  first.  And  he  said  out  loud  again  and  again, 
though  being  half  asleep  he  did  not  know  it,  "  I  must 
be  clean,  I  must  be  clean." 

And  all  of  a  sudden  he  found  himself  not  in  the 
outhouse  on  the  hay,  but  in  the  middle  of  a  meadow, 
over  the  road,  with  the  stream  just  before  him,  say- 
ing continually,  "  I  must  be  clean,  I  must  be  clean." 
He  had  got  there  on  his  own  legs,  between  sleep  and 
awake,  as  children  will  often  get  out  of  bed,  and  go 
about  the  room,  when  they  are  not  quite  well.  But 
he  was  not  a  bit  surprised,  and  went  on  to  the  bank 
of  the  brook,  and  lay  down  on  the  grass,  and  looked 
into  the  clear,  clear  limestone  water,  with  every 
pebble  at  the  bottom  bright  and  clean,  while  the 
little  silver  trout  dashed  about  in  fright  at  the  sight 
of  his  black  face;  and  he  dipped  his  hand  in  and 
found  it  so  cool,  cool,  cool;  and  he  said,  "  I  will  be  a 
fish;  I  will  swim  in  the  water;  I  must  be  clean,  I 
must  be  clean." 

So  he  pulled  off  all  his  clothes  in  such  haste  that 
he  tore  some  of  them,  which  was  easy  enough  with 
such  ragged  old  things.  And  he  put  his  poor  hot 
sore  feet  into  the  water;  and  then  his  legs;  and  the 
farther  he  went  in,  the  more  the  church-bells  rang  in 
his  head. 

[46] 


THE    WATER- BABIES 

"  Ah,"  said  Tom,  "  I  must  be  quick  and  wash 
myself;  the  bells  are  ringing  quite  loud  now;  and 
they  will  stop  soon,  and  then  the  door  will  be  shut, 
and  I  shall  never  be  able  to  get  in  at  all." 

Tom  was  mistaken:  for  in  England  the  church 
doors  are  left  open  all  service  time,  for  everybody 
who  likes  to  come  in,  Churchman  or  Dissenter;  ay, 
even  if  he  were  a  Turk  or  a  Heathen;  and  if  any 
man  dared  to  turn  him  out,  as  long  as  he  behaved 
quietly,  the  good  old  English  law  would  punish  that 
man,  as  he  deserved,  for  ordering  any  peaceable 
person  out  of  God's  house,  which  belongs  to  all 
alike.  But  Tom  did  not  know  that,  any  more  than 
he  knew  a  great  deal  more  which  people  ought  to 
know. 

And  all  the  while  he  never  saw  the  Irishwoman, 
not  behind  him  this  time,  but  before. 

For  just  before  he  came  to  the  river  side,  she  had 
stepped  down  into  the  cool  clear  water;  and  her 
shawl  and  her  petticoat  floated  off  her,  and 
the  green  water-weeds  floated  round  her  sides,  and 
the  white  water-lilies  floated  round  her  head,  and  the 
fairies  of  the  stream  came  up  from  the  bottom  and 
bore  her  away  and  down  upon  their  arms;  for  she 
was  the  Queen  of  them  all;  and  perhaps  of  more 
besides. 

[471 


THE   WATER-BABIES 

"  Where  have  you  been  ?  "  they  asked  her. 

"  I  have  been  smoothing  sick  folks'  pillows,  and 
whispering  sweet  dreams  into  their  ears;  opening 
cottage  casements,  to  let  out  the  stifling  air;  coaxing 
little  children  away  from  gutters,  and  foul  pools 
where  fever  breeds;  turning  women  from  the  gin- 
shop  door,  and  staying  men's  hands  as  they  were 
going  to  strike  their  wives;  doing  all  I  can  to  help 
those  who  will  not  help  themselves :  and  little  enough 
that  is,  and  weary  work  for  me.  But  I  have  brought 
you  a  new  little  brother,  and  watched  him  safe  all 
the  way  here." 

Then  all  the  fairies  laughed  for  joy  at  the  thought 
that  they  had  a  little  brother  coming. 

"  But  mind,  maidens,  he  must  not  see  you,  or 
know  that  you  are  here.  He  is  but  a  savage  now, 
and  like  the  beasts  which  perish;  and  from  the  beasts 
which  perish  he  must  learn.  So  you  must  not  play 
with  him,  or  speak  to  him,  or  let  him  see  you:  but 
only  keep  him  from  being  harmed." 

Then  the  fairies  were  sad,  because  they  could  not 
play  with  their  new  brother,  but  they  always  did  what 
they  were  told. 

And  their  Queen  floated  away  down  the  river;  and 
whither  she  went,  thither  she  came.  But  all  this 
Tom,  of  course,  never  saw  or  heard:  and  perhaps 

[48] 


THE   WATER-BABIES 

if  he  had  it  would  have  made  little  difference  in  th« 
story;  for  he  was  so  hot  and  thirsty,  and  longed  so 
to  be  clean  for  once,  that  he  tumbled  himself  as  quick 
as  he  could  into  the  clear  cool  stream. 

And  he  had  not  been  in  it  two  minutes  before  he 
fell  fast  asleep,  into  the  quietest,  sunniest,  cosiest 
sleep  that  ever  he  had  in  his  life;  and  he  dreamt 
about  the  green  meadows  by  which  he  had  walked 
that  morning,  and  the  tall  elm-trees,  and  the  sleeping 
cows;  and  after  that  he  dreamt  of  nothing  at  all. 

The  reason  of  his  falling  into  such  a  delightful 
sleep  is  very  simple;  and  yet  hardly  any  one  has 
found  it  out.  It  was  merely  that  the  fairies  took 
him. 

Some  people  think  that  there  are  no  fairies.  But 
it  is  a  wide  world,  and  plenty  of  room  in  it  for  fairies, 
without  people  seeing  them;  unless,  of  course,  they 
look  in  the  right  place.  The  most  wonderful  and 
the  strongest  things  in  the  world,  you  know,  are  just 
the  things  which  no  one  can  see.  There  is  life  in 
you ;  and  it  is  the  life  in  you  which  makes  you  grow, 
and  move,  and  think :  and  yet  you  can't  see  it.  And 
there  is  steam  in  a  steam-engine;  and  that  is  what 
makes  it  move :  and  yet  you  can't  see  it;  and  so  there 
may  be  fairies  in  the  world,  and  they  may  be  just 
what  makes  the  world  go  round  to  the  old  tune  of 

[49l 


THE    WATER-BABIES 

"  C'est  I' amour,  V amour,  I' amour 
Qui  fait  la  monde  a  la  ronde:  " 

and  yet  no  one  may  be  able  to  see  them  except  those 
whose  hearts  are  going  round  to  that  same  tune.  At 
all  events,  we  will  make  believe  that  there  are  fairies 
in  the  world.  It  will  not  be  the  last  time  by  many  a 
one  that  we  shall  have  to  make  believe.  And  yet, 
after  all,  there  is  no  need  for  that.  There  must  be 
fairies;  for  this  is  a  fairy  tale:  and  how  can  one 
have  a  fairy  tale  if  there  are  no  fairies? 

The  kind  old  dame  came  back  at  twelve,  when 
school  was  over,  to  look  at  Tom :  but  there  was  no 
Tom  there.  She  looked  about  for  his  footprints; 
but  the  ground  was  so  hard  that  there  was  none. 

So  the  old  dame  went  in  again  quite  sulky,  think- 
ing that  little  Tom  had  tricked  her  with  a  false  story, 
and  shammed  ill,  and  then  run  away  again. 

But  she  altered  her  mind  the  next  day.  For,  when 
Sir  John  and  the  rest  of  them  had  run  themselves 
out  of  breath,  and  lost  Tom,  they  went  back  again, 
looking  very  foolish. 

And  they  looked  more  foolish  still  when  Sir  John 
heard  more  of  the  story  from  the  nurse;  and  more 
foolish  still,  again,  when  they  heard  the  whole  story 
from  Miss  Ellie,  the  little  lady  in  white.  All  she  had 

[50] 


THE    WATER-BABIES 

seen  was  a  poor  little  black  chimney-sweep,  crying 
and  sobbing,  and  going  to  get  up  the  chimney  again. 
Of  course,  she  was  very  much  frightened:  and  no 
wonder.  But  that  was  all.  The  boy  had  taken  noth- 
ing in  the  room;  by  the  mark  of  his  little  sooty  feet, 
they  could  see  that  he  had  never  been  off  the  hearth- 
rug till  the  nurse  caught  hold  of  him.  It  was  all  a 
mistake. 

So  Sir  John  told  Grimes  to  go  home,  and  promised 
him  five  shillings  if  he  would  bring  the  boy  quietly 
up  to  him,  without  beating  him,  that  he  might  be  sure 
of  the  truth.  For  he  took  for  granted,  and  Grimes 
too,  that  Tom  had  made  his  way  home. 

But  no  Tom  came  back  to  Mr.  Grimes  that  even- 
ing; and  he  went  to  the  police-office,  to  tell  them  to 
look  out  for  the  boy.  But  no  Tom  was  heard  of. 
As  for  his  having  gone  over  those  great  fells  to 
Vendale,  they  no  more  dreamed  of  that  than  of  his 
having  gone  to  the  moon. 

So  Mr.  Grimes  came  up  to  Harthover  next  day 
with  a  very  sour  face;  but  when  he  got  there,  Sir 
John  was  over  the  hills  and  far  away;  and  Mr. 
Grimes  had  to  sit  in  the  outer  servants'  hall  all  day, 
and  drink  strong  ale  to  wash  away  his  sorrows;  and 
they  were  washed  away  long  before  Sir  John  came 
back. 


THE   WATER-BABIES 

For  good  Sir  John  had  slept  very  badly  that  night; 
and  he  said  to  his  lady,  "  My  dear,  the  boy  must 
have  got  over  into  the  grouse-moors,  and  lost  him- 
self; and  he  lies  very  heavily  on  my  conscience,  poor 
little  lad.  But  I  know  what  I  will  do." 

So,  at  five  the  next  morning  up  he  got,  and  into  his 
bath,  and  into  his  shooting-jacket  and  gaiters,  and 


into  the  stableyard,  like  a  fine  old  English  gentleman, 
with  a  face  as  red  as  a  rose,  and  a  hand  as  hard  as 
a  table,  and  a  back  as  broad  as  a  bullock's;  and  bade 
them  bring  his  shooting  pony,  and  the  keeper  to  come 
on  his  pony,  and  the  huntsman,  and  the  first  whip, 
and  the  second  whip,  and  the  underkeeper  with  the 
bloodhound  in  a  leash — a  great  dog  as  tall  as  a  calf, 
of  the  colour  of  a  gravel-walk,  with  mahogany  ears 
and  nose,  and  a  throat  like  a  church-bell.  They  took 
him  up  to  the  place  where  Tom  had  gone  into  the 
wood ;  and  there  the  hound  lifted  up  his  mighty  voice, 
and  told  them  all  he  knew. 

[52] 


THE    WATER-BABIES 

Then  he  took  them  to  the  place  where  Tom  had 
climbed  the  wall;  and  they  shoved  it  down,  and  all 
got  through. 

And  then  the  wise  dog  took  them  over  the  moor, 
and  over  the  fells,  step  by  step,  very  slowly;  for  the 
scent  was  a  day  old,  you  know,  and  very  light  from 
the  heat  and  drought.  But  that  was  why  cunning  old 
Sir  John  started  at  five  in  the  morning. 

And  at  last  he  came  to  the  top  of  Lewthwaite 
Crag,  and  there  he  bayed,  and  looked  up  in  their 
faces,  as  much  as  to  say,  "  I  tell  you  he  is  gone  down 
here!" 

They  could  hardly  believe  that  Tom  would  have 
gone  so  far ;  and  when  they  looked  at  that  awful  cliff, 
they  could  never  believe  that  he  would  have  dared 
to  face  it.  But  if  the  dog  said  so,  it  must  be 
true. 

"  Heaven  forgive  us !  "  said  Sir  John.  "  If  we 
find  him  at  all,  we  shall  find  him  lying  at  the  bot- 
tom." And  he  slapped  his  great  hand  upon  his 
great  thigh,  and  said — 

'  Who  will  go  down  over  Lewthwaite  Crag,  and 
see  if  that  boy  is  alive  ?  Oh  that  I  were  twenty  years 
younger,  and  I  would  go  down  myself !  "  And  so  he 
would  have  done,  as  well  as  any  sweep  in  the  county. 
Then  he  said — 

[53] 


THE   WATER-BABIES 

"  Twenty  pounds  to  the  man  who  brings  me  that 
boy  alive !  "  and  as  was  his  way,  what  he  said  he 
meant. 

Now  among  the  lot  was  a  little  groom-boy,  a  very 
little  groom  indeed;  and  he  was  the  same  who  had 
ridden  up  the  court,  and  told  Tom  to  come  to  the 
Hall;  and  he  said — 

"  Twenty  pounds  or  none,  I  will  go  down  over 
Lewthwaite  Crag,  if  it's  only  for  the  poor  boy's 
sake.  For  he  was  as  civil  a  spoken  little  chap  as  ever 
climbed  a  flue." 

So  down  over  Lewthwaite  Crag  he  went:  a  very 
smart  groom  he  was  at  the  top,  and  a  very  shabby 
one  at  the  bottom;  for  he  tore  his  gaiters,  and  he 
tore  his  breeches,  and  he  tore  his  jacket,  and  he  burst 
his  braces,  and  he  burst  his  boots,  and  he  lost  his  hat, 
and  what  was  worst  of  all,  he  lost  his  shirt  pin,  which 
he  prized  very  much,  for  it  was  gold,  and  he  had 
won  it  in  a  raffle  at  Malton,  so  it  was  a  really  severe 
loss:  but  he  never  saw  anything  of  Tom. 

And  all  the  while  Sir  John  and  the  rest  were 
riding  round,  full  three  miles  to  the  right,  and  back 
again,  to  get  into  Vendale,  and  to  the  foot  of  the 
crag. 

When  they  came  to  the  old  dame's  school,  all  the 
children  came  out  to  see.  And  the  old  dame  came 

[54] 


THE    WATER-BABIES 

out  too;  and  when  she  saw  Sir  John,  she  curtsied 
very  low,  for  she  was  a  tenant  of  his. 

"  Well,  dame,  and  how  are  you?  "  said  Sir  John. 

"  Blessings  on  you  as  broad  as  your  back,  Harth- 
over,"  says  she — she  didn't  call  him  Sir  John,  but 
only  Harthover,  for  that  is  the  fashion  in  the  North 
country — "  and  welcome  into  Vendale :  but  you're 
no  hunting  the  fox  this  time  of  the  year?  " 

"  I  am  hunting,  and  strange  game  too,"  said  he. 

"  Blessings  on  your  heart,  and  what  makes  you 
look  so  sad  the  morn?  " 

"  I'm  looking  for  a  lost  child,  a  chimney-sweep, 
that  is  run  away." 

"  Oh,  Harthover,  Harthover,"  says  she,  "  ye  were 
always  a  just  man  and  a  merciful;  and  ye'll  no  harm 
the  poor  little  lad  if  I  give  you  tidings  of  him?  " 

"  Not  I,  not  I,  dame.  I'm  afraid  we  hunted  him 
out  of  the  house  all  on  a  miserable  mistake,  and  the 
hound  has  brought  him  to  the  top  of  Lewthwaite 
Crag,  and " 

Whereat  the  old  dame  broke  out  crying,  without 
letting  him  finish  his  story. 

"  So  he  told  me  the  truth  after  all,  poor  little 
dear!  Ah,  first  thoughts  are  best,  and  a  body's 
heart'll  guide  them  right,  if  they  will  but  hearken  to 
it."  And  then  she  told  Sir  John  all. 

[55] 


THE   WATER-BABIES 

"  Bring  the  dog  here,  and  lay  him  on,"  said  Sir 
John,  without  another  word,  and  he  set  his  teeth 
very  hard. 

And  the  dog  opened  at  once ;  and  went  away  at  the 
back  of  the  cottage,  over  the  road,  and  over  the 
meadow,  and  through  a  bit  of  alder  copse ;  and  there, 
upon  an  alder  stump,  they  saw  Tom's  clothes  lying. 
And  then  they  knew  as  much  about  it  all  as  there  was 
any  need  to  know. 

And  Tom? 

Ah,  now  comes  the  most  wonderful  part  of  this 
wonderful  story.  Tom,  when  he  woke,  for  of  course 
he  woke — children  always  wake  after  they  have  slept 
exactly  as  long  as  is  good  for  them — found  himself 
swimming  about  in  the  stream,  being  about  four 
inches,  or — that  I  may  be  accurate — 3.87902  inches 
long,  and  having  round  the  parotid  region  of  his 
fauces  a  set  of  external  gills  (I  hope  you  understand 
all  the  big  words)  just  like  those  of  a  sucking  eft, 
which  he  mistook  for  a  lace  frill,  till  he  pulled  at 
them,  found  he  hurt  himself,  and  made  up  his  mind 
that  they  were  part  of  himself,  and  best  left  alone. 

In  fact,  the  fairies  had  turned  him  into  a  water- 
baby. 

A  water-baby?  You  never  heard  of  a  water-baby. 
Perhaps  not.  That  is  the  very  reason  why  this  story 

[56] 


THE    WATER-BABIES 

was  written.  There  are  a  great  many  things  in  the 
world  which  you  never  heard  of;  and  a  great  many 
more  which  nobody  ever  heard  of;  and  a  great  many 
things,  too,  which  nobody  will  ever  hear  of,  at  least 
until  the  coming  of  the  Cocqcigrues,  when  man  shall 
be  the  measure  of  all  things. 

"  But  there  are  no  such  things  as  water-babies." 

How  do  you  know  that?  Have  you  been  there 
to  see?  And  if  you  had  been  there  to  see,  and  had 
seen  none,  that  would  not  prove  that  there  were 
none.  And  no  one  has  a  right  to  say  that  no  water- 
babies  exist,  till  they  have  seen  no  water-babies  exist- 
ing; which  is  quite  a  different  thing,  mind,  from  not 
seeing  water-babies;  and  a  thing  nobody  ever  did, 
or  perhaps  ever  will  do. 

"  But  surely  if  there  were  water-babies,  somebody 
would  have  caught  one  at  least?  " 

Well.    How  do  you  know  that  somebody  has  not? 

"  But  they  would  have  put  it  into  spirits,  or  into 
the  Illustrated  News,  or  perhaps  cut  it  into  two 
halves,  poor  dear  little  thing,  and  sent  one  to  Pro- 
fessor Owen,  and  one  to  Professor  Huxley,  to  see 
what  they  would  each  say  about  it." 

Ah,  my  dear  little  man !  that  does  not  follow  at  all, 
as  you  will  see  before  the  end  of  the  story. 

"  But  a  water-baby  is  contrary  to  nature." 

[57] 


THE    WATER-BABIES 

Well,  but,  my  dear  little  man,  you  must  learn  to 
talk  about  such  things,  when  you  grow  older,  in  a 
very  different  way  from  that.  You  must  not  talk 
about  "  ain't "  and  "  can't  "  when  you  speak  of  this 
great  wonderful  world  round  you,  of  which  the 
wisest  man  knows  only  the  very  smallest  corner,  and 
is,  as  the  great  Sir  Isaac  Newton  said,  only  a  child 
picking  up  pebbles  on  the  shore  of  a  boundless 
ocean. 

You  must  not  say  that  this  cannot  be,  or  that 
that  is  contrary  to  nature.  You  do  not  know  what 
Nature  is,  or  what  she  can  do;  and  nobody  knows. 
Wise  men  are  afraid  to  say  that  there  is  anything  con- 
trary to  nature,  except  what  is  contrary  to  mathemati- 
cal truth;  for  two  and  two  cannot  make  five,  and  two 
straight  lines  cannot  join  twice,  and  a  part  cannot 
be  as  great  as  the  whole,  and  so  on  (at  least,  so  it 
seems  at  present)  :  but  the  wiser  men  are,  the  less 
they  talk  about  "  cannot."  That  is  a  very  rash, 
dangerous  word,  that  "  cannot";  and  if  people  use 
it  too  often,  the  Queen  of  all  the  Fairies,  who  makea 
the  clouds  thunder  and  the  fleas  bite,  and  takes  just  as 
much  trouble  about  one  as  about  the  other,  is  apt  to 
astonish  them  suddenly  by  showing  them,  that  though 
they  say  she  cannot,  yet  she  can,  and  what  is  more, 
will,  whether  they  approve  or  not. 

[58] 


THE    WATER-BABIES 

And  therefore  it  is,  that  there  are  dozens  and 
hundreds  of  things  in  the  world  which  we  should 
certainly  have  said  were  contrary  to  nature,  if  we  did 
not  see  them  going  on  under  our  eyes  all  day  long. 
If  people  had  never  seen  little  seeds  grow  into  great 
plants  and  trees,  of  quite  different  shape  from  them- 
selves, and  these  trees  again  produce  fresh  seeds,  to 
grow  into  fresh  trees,  they  would  have  said,  "  The 
thing  cannot  be;  it  is  contrary  to  nature."  And  they 
would  have  been  quite  as  right  in  saying  so,  as  in 
saying  that  most  other  things  cannot  be. 

Or  suppose  again,  that  you  had  come  a  traveller 
from  unknown  parts;  and  that  no  human  being  had 
ever  seen  or  heard  of  an  elephant.  And  suppose  that 
you  described  him  to  people,  and  said,  "  This  is  the 
shape,  and  plan,  and  anatomy  of  the  beast,  and  of 
his  feet,  and  of  his  trunk,  and  of  his  grinders,  and 
of  his  tusks,  though  they  are  not  tusks  at  all,  but 
two  fore  teeth  run  mad;  and  this  is  the  section  of  his 
skull,  more  like  a  mushroom  than  a  reasonable  skull 
of  a  reasonable  or  unreasonable  beast;  and  so  forth, 
and  so  forth;  and  though  the  beast  (which  I  assure 
you  I  have  seen  and  shot)  is  first  cousin  to  the  little 
hairy  coney  of  Scripture,  second  cousin  to  a  pig,  and 
(I  suspect)  thirteenth  or  fourteenth  cousin  to  a  rab- 
bit, yet  he  is  the  wisest  of  all  beasts,  and  can  do 

[59] 


THE   WATER-BABIES 

everything  save  read, 
write,  and  cast  ac- 
c  ount  s."  People 
would  surely  have 
said,  "  Nonsense;  your 
elephant  is  contrary  to 
n  a  t  u  r  e,"  and  have 
thought  you  were  tell- 
ing stories — a  s  the 
French  thought  of  Le 
Vaillant  when  he  came 
back  to  Paris  and  said 
that  he  had  shot  a  gi- 
raffe; and  as  the  king 
of  the  Cannibal  Is- 
lands thought  of  the 
English  sailor,  when 
he  said  that  in  his 
country  water  turned 
to  marble,  and  rain 
fell  as  feathers.  They 
would  tell  you,  the 
more  they  knew  of 
science,  "  Your  el- 
ephant is  an  impossible 
monster,  contrary  to 
[60] 


THE    WATER-BABIES 


the  laws  of  compara- 
tive anatomy,  as  far  as 
yet  known."  To  which 
you  would  answer  the 
less,  the  more  you 
thought. 

Did  not  learned 
men,  too,  hold,  till 
within  the  last  twenty- 
five  years,  that  a  flying 
dragon  was  an  impos- 
sible monster?  And 
do  we  not  now  know 
that  there  are  hun- 
dreds of  them  found 
fossil  up  and  down  the 
,w  o  r  1  d  ?  People  call 
them  Pterodactyles : 
but  that  is  only  because 
they  are  ashamed  to 
call  them  flying  drag- 
ons, after  denying  so 
long  that  flying  drag- 
ons could  exist. 

The  truth  is,  that 
folks'  fancy  that  such 


[61] 


THE    WATER-BABIES 

and  such  things  cannot  be,  simply  because  they  have 
not  seen  them  is  worth  no  more  than  a  savage's 
fancy  that  there  cannot  be  such  a  thing  as  a  loco- 
motive, because  he  never  saw  one  running  wild  in 
the  forest.  Wise  men  know  that  their  business  is 
to  examine  what  is,  and  not  to  settle  what  is  not. 
They  know  that  there  are  elephants;  they  know  that 
there  have  been  flying  dragons;  and  the  wiser  they 
are,  the  less  inclined  they  will  be  to  say  positively 
that  there  are  no  water-babies. 

No  water-babies,  indeed!  Why,  wise  men  of  old 
said  that  everything  on  earth  had  its  double  in  the 
water;  and  you  may  see  that  that  is,  if  not  quite  true, 
still  quite  as  true  as  most  other  theories  which  you 
are  likely  to  hear  for  many  a  day.  There  are  land- 
babies — then  why  not  water-babies?  Are  there  not 
water-rats,  water-flies,  water-crickets,  water-crabs, 
water-tortoises,  water-scorpions,  water-tigers  and 
water-hogs,  water-cats  and  water-dogs,  sea-lions  and 
sea-bears,  sea-horses  and  sea-elephants,  sea-mice  and 
sea-urchins,  sea-razors  and  sea-pens,  sea-combs  and 
sea-fans;  and  of  plants,  are  there  not  water-grass, 
and  water-crowfoot,  water-milfoil,  and  so  on,  without 
end? 

"But  all  these  things  are  only  nicknames;  the 
water  things  are  not  really  akin  to  the  land  things." 

[62] 


THE    WATER-BABIES 

That's  not  always  true.  They  are,  in  millions  of 
cases,  not  only  of  the  same  family,  but  actually  the 
same  individual  creatures.  Do  not  even  you  know 
that  a  green  drake,  and  an  alder-fly,  and  a  dragon- 
fly, live  under  water  till  they  change  their  skins,  just 
as  Tom  changed  his?  And  if  a  water  animal  can 
continually  change  into  a  land  animal,  why  should 
not  a  land  animal  sometimes  change  into  a  water 
animal? 

Am  I  in  earnest?  Oh  dear  no !  Don't  you  know 
that  this  is  a  fairy  tale,  and  all  fun  and  pretence; 
and  that  you  are  not  to  believe  one  word  of  it, 
even  if  it  is  true? 

But  at  all  events,  so  it  happened  to  Tom.  And, 
therefore,  the  keeper,  and  the  groom,  and  Sir  John 
made  a  great  mistake,  and  were  very  unhappy  (Sir 
John  at  least)  without  any  reason,  when  they  found 
a  black  thing  in  the  water,  and  said  it  was  Tom's 
body,  and  that  he  had  been  drowned.  They  were 
utterly  mistaken.  Tom  was  quite  alive;  and  cleaner, 
and  merrier,  than  he  ever  had  been.  The  fairies  had 
washed  him,  you  see,  in  the  swift  river,  so  thor- 
oughly, that  not  only  his  dirt,  but  his  whole  husk 
and  shell  had  been  washed  quite  off  him,  and  the 
pretty  little  real  Tom  was  washed  out  of  the  inside 
of  it,  and  swam  away,  as  a  caddis  does  when  its 

[63] 


THE   WATER-BABIES 

case  of  stones  and  silk  is  bored  through,  and  away  it 
goes  on  its  back,  paddling  to  the  shore,  there  to  split 
its  skin,  and  fly  away  as  a  caperer,  on  four  fawn- 
coloured  wings,  with  long  legs  and  horns.  They  are 
foolish  fellows,  the  caperers,  and  fly  into  the  candle 
at  night,  if  you  leave  the  door  open.  We  will  hope 
Tom  will  be  wiser,  now  he  has  got  safe  ouf-  of  his 
sooty  old  shell. 

But  good  Sir  John  did  not  understand  all  this, 
not  being  a  fellow  of  the  Linnaean  Society;  and  he 
took  it  into  his  head  that  Tom  was  drowned.  When 
they  looked  into  the  empty  pockets  of  his  shell,  and 
found  no  jewels  there,  nor  money — nothing  but  three 
marbles,  and  a  brass  button  with  a  string  to  it — then 
Sir  John  did  something  as  like  crying  as  ever  he  did 
in  his  life,  and  blamed  himself  more  bitterly  than 
he  need  have  done.  So  he  cried,  and  the  groom-boy 
cried,  and  the  huntsman  cried,  and  the  dame  cried, 
and  the  little  girl  cried,  and  the  dairymaid  cried,  and 
the  old  nurse  cried  (for  it  was  somewhat  her  fault), 
and  my  lady  cried,  for  though  people  have  wigs,  that 
is  no  reason  why  they  should  not  have  hearts;  but 
the  keeper  did  not  cry,  though  he  had  been  so  good- 
natured  to  Tom  the  morning  before;  for  he  was  so 
dried  up  with  running  after  poachers,  that  you  could 
no  more  get  tears  out  of  him  than  milk  out  of  leather  : 

[64] 


THE   WATER-BABIES 

and  Grimes  did  not  cry,  for  Sir  John  gave  him  ten 
pounds,  and  he  drank  it  all  in  a  week.  Sir  John 
sent,  far  and  wide,  to  find  Tom's  father  and  mother: 
but  he  might  have  looked  till  Doomsday  for  them, 
for  one  was  dead,  and  the  other  was  in  Botany  Bay. 
And  the  little  girl  would  not  play  with  her  dolls  for 
a  whole  week,  and  never  forgot  poor  little  Tom. 
And  soon  my  lady  put  a  pretty  little  tombstone  over 
Tom's  shell  in  the  little  churchyard  in  Vendale, 
where  the  old  dalesmen  all  sleep  side  by  side  between 
the  limestone  crags.  And  the  dame  decked  it  with 
garlands  every  Sunday,  till  she  grew  so  old  that  she 
could  not  stir  abroad ;  then  the  little  children  decked 
it  for  her.  And  always  she  sang  an  old  old  song,  as 
she  sat  spinning  what  she  called  her  wedding-dress. 
The  children  could  not  understand  it,  but  they  liked 
it  none  the  less  for  that;  for  it  was  very  sweet,  and 
very  sad;  and  that  was  enough  for  them.  And  these 
are  the  words  of  it: — 

When  all  the  world  is  young,  lad, 

And  all  the  trees  are  green; 
And  every  goose  a  swan,  lad, 

And  every  lass  a  queen; 
Then  hey  for  boot  and  horse,  ladt 

And  round  the  world  away; 

[65] 


THE    WATER-BABIES 

Young  blood  must  have  its  course,  lad, 
And  every  dog  his  day. 

When  all  the  world  is  old,  lad, 

And  all  the  trees  are  brown; 
And  all  the  sport  is  stale,  lad, 

And  all  the  wheels  run  down; 
Creep  home,  and  take  your  place  there, 

The  spent  and  maimed  among: 
God  grant  you  find  one  face  there, 

You  loved  when  all  was  young. 

Those  are  the  words :  but  they  are  only  the  body 
of  it:  the  soul  of  the  song  was  the  dear  old  woman's 
sweet  face,  and  sweet  voice,  and  the  sweet  old  air  to 
which  she  sang;  and  that,  alas!  one  cannot  put  on 
paper.  And  at  last  she  grew  so  stiff  and  lame,  that 
the  angels  were  forced  to  carry  her :  and  they  helped 
her  on  with  her  wedding-dress,  and  carried  her  up 
over  Harthover  Fells,  and  a  long  way  beyond  that 
too;  and  there  was  a  new  schoolmistress  in  Vendale. 

And  all  the  while  Tom  was  swimming  about  in  the 
river,  with  a  prety  little  lace-collar  of  gills  about  his 
neck,  as  lively  as  a  grig,  arid  as  clean  as  a  fresh-run 
salmon. 

[66] 


CHAPTER  III 

TOM  was  now  quite  amphibious.    You  do  not 
know  what  that  means? 

You  had  better,  then,  ask  the  nearest 
Government  pupil-teacher,  who  may  possibly  answer 
you  smartly  enough,  thus — 

"  Amphibious.  Adjective,  derived  from  two 
Greek  words,  amphi,  a  fish,  and  bios,  a  beast.  An 
animal  supposed  by  our  ignorant  ancestors  to  be 
compounded  of  a  fish  and  a  beast;  which  therefore, 
like  the  hippopotamus,  can't  live  on  the  land,  and 
dies  in  the  water." 

However  that  may  be,  Tom  was  amphibious: 
and  what  is  better  still,  he  was  clean.  For  the  first 
time  in  his  life,  he  felt  how  comfortable  it  was  to 
have  nothing  on  him  but  himself.  But  he  only 


THE    WATER-BABIES 

enjoyed  it:  he  did  not  know  it,  or  think  about  it; 
just  as  you  enjoy  life  and  health,  and  yet  never 
think  about  being  alive  and  healthy;  and  may  it  be 
long  before  you  have  to  think  about  it ! 

He  did  not  remember  having  ever  been  dirty.  In- 
deed, he  did  not  remember  any  of  his  old  troubles, 
being  tired,  or  hungry,  or  beaten,  or  sent  up  dark 
chimneys.  Since  that  sweet  sleep,  he  had  forgotten 
all  about  his  master,  and  Harthover  Place,  and  the 
little  white  girl,  and  in  a  word,  all  that  had  happened 
to  him  when  he  lived  before;  and  what  was  best  of 
all,  he  had  forgotten  all  the  bad  words  which  he  had 
learned  from  Grimes,  and  the  rude  boys  with  whom 
he  used  to  play. 

That  is  not  strange :  for  you  know,  when  you  came 
into  this  world,  and  became  a  land-baby,  you  remem- 
bered nothing.  So  why  should  he,  when  he  became 
a  water-baby? 

Then  have  you  lived  before? 

My  dear  child,  who  can  tell?  One  can  only  tell 
that,  by  remembering  something  which  happened 
where  we  lived  before;  and  as  we  remember  noth- 
ing, we  know  nothing  about  it;  and  no  book,  and  no 
man,  can  never  tell  us  certainly. 

There  was  a  wise  man  once,  a  very  wise  man, 
[68] 


THE   WATER- BABIES 

and  a  very  good  man,  who  wrote  a  poem  about  the 
feelings  which  some  children  have  about  having 
lived  before ;  and  this  is  what  he  said — 

"  Our  birth  is  but  a  sleep  and  a  forgetting; 
The  soul  that  rises  with  us,  our  life's  star, 
Hath  elsewhere  had  its  setting, 

And  cometh  from  afar: 
Not  in  entire  forgetfulness, 
And  not  in  utter  nakedness, 
But  trailing  clouds  of  glory,  do  we  come 
From  God,  who  is  our  home." 

There,  you  can  know  no  more  than  that.  But  if  I 
was  you,  I  would  believe  that.  For  thep  you  will 
believe  the  one  true  doctrine  of  this  wonderful  fairy 
tale ;  which  is,  that  your  soul  makes  your  body,  just 
as  a  snail  makes  his  shell.  For  the  rest,  it  is  en6*ugh 
for  us  to  be  sure  that  whether  or  not  we  lived  before, 
we  shall  live  again ;  though  not,  I  hope,  as  poor  little 
heathen  Tom  did.  For  he  went  downward  into  the 
water:  but  we,  I  hope,  shall  go  upward  to  a  very 
different  place. 

But  Tom  was  very  happy  in  the  water.  He  had 
been  sadly  overworked  in  the  land-world;  and  so 
now,  to  make  up  for  that,  he  had  nothing  but  holi- 

[69] 


THE    WATER-BABIES 

days  in  the  water-world  for  a  long,  long  time  to 
come.  He  had  nothing  to  do  now  but  enjoy  himself, 
and  look  at  all  the  pretty  things  which  are  to  be  seen 
in  the  cool  clear  water-world,  where  the  sun  is  never 
too  hot,  and  the  frost  is  never  too  cold. 

And  what  did  he  live  on?  Water-cresses,  per- 
haps; or  perhaps  water-gruel,  and  water-milk;  too 
many  land-babies  do  so  likewise.  But  we  do  not 
know  what  one-tenth  of  the  water-things  eat;  so  we 
are  not  answerable  for  the  water-babies. 

Sometimes  he  went  along  the  smooth  gravel  water- 
ways, looking  at  the  crickets  which  ran  in  and  out 
among  the  stones,  as  rabbits  do  on  land;  or  he 
climbed  over  the  ledges  of  rock,  and  saw  the  sand- 
pipes  hanging  in  thousands,  with  every  one  of  them 
a  pretty  little  head  and  legs  peeping  out;  or  he  went 
into  a  still  corner,  and  watched  the  caddises  eating 
dead  sticks  as  greedily  as  you  would  eat  plum- 
pudding,  and  building  their  houses  with  silk  and  glue. 
Very  fanciful  ladies  they  were;  none  of  them  would 
keep  to  the  same  materials  for  a  day.  One  would 
begin  with  some  pebbles;  then  she  would  stick  on  a 
piece  of  green  wood;  then  she  found  a  shell,  and 
stuck  it  on  too;  and  the  poor  shell  was  alive,  and 
did  not  like  at  all  being  taken  to  build  houses  with : 
but  the  caddis  did  not  let  him  have  any  voice  in  the 

[70] 


THE    WATER-BABIES 

matter,  being  rude  and  selfish,  as  vain  people  are 
apt  to  be ;  then  she  stuck  on  a  piece  of  rotten  wood, 
then  a  very  smart  pink  stone,  and  so  on,  till  she  was 
patched  all  over  like  an  Irishman's  coat.  Then  she 
found  a  long  straw,  five  times  as  long  as  herself,  and 
said,  "  Hurrah !  my  sister  has  a  tail,  and  I'll  have 
one  too;  "  and  she  stuck  it  on  her  back,  and  marched 
about  with  it  quite  proud,  though  it  was  very  incon- 
venient indeed.  And,  at  that,  tails  became  all  the 
fashion  among  the  caddis-baits  in  that  pool,  as  they 
were  at  the  end  of  the  Long  Pond  last  May,  and 
they  all  toddled  about  with  long  straws  sticking  out 
behind,  getting  between  each  other's  legs,  and 
tumbling  over  each  other,  and  looking  so  ridiculous, 
that  Tom  laughed  at  them  till  he  cried,  as  we  did. 
But  they  were  quite  right,  you  know;  for  people 
must  always  follow  the  fashion,  even  if  it  be  spoon- 
bonnets. 

Then  sometimes  he  came  to  a  deep  still  reach; 
and  there  he  saw  the  water-forests.  They  would 
have  looked  to  you  only  little  weeds:  but  Tom,  you 
must  remember,  was  so  little  that  everything  looked 
a  hundred  times  as  big  to  him  as  it  does  to  you,  just 
as  things  do  to  a  minnow,  who  sees  and  catches  the 
little  water-creatures  which  you  can  only  see  in  a 
microscope. 

[71] 


THE    WATER-BABIES 

And  in  the  water-forest  he  saw  the  water-monkeys 
and  water-squirrels  (they  had  all  six  legs,  though; 
everything  almost  has  six  legs  in  the  water,  except 
efts  and  water-babies)  ;  and  nimbly  enough  they  ran 
among  the  branches.  There  were  water-flowers  there 
too,  in  thousands;  and  Tom  tried  to  pick  them:  but 
as  soon  as  he  touched  them,  they  drew  themselves  in 
and  turned  into  knots  of  jelly;  and  then  Tom  saw 
that  they  were  all  alive — bells,  and  stars,  and  wheels, 
and  flowers,  of  all  beautiful  shapes  and  colours;  and 
all  alive  and  busy,  just  as  Tom  was.  So  now  he 
found  that  there  was  a  great  deal  more  in  the 
world  than  he  had  fancied  at  first  sight. 

There  was  one  wonderful  little  fellow,  too,  who 
peeped  out  of  the  top  of  a  house  built  of  round  bricks. 
He  had  two  big  wheels,  and  one  little  one,  all  over 
teeth,  spinning  round  and  round  like  the  wheels  in  a 
thrashing-machine;  and  Tom  stood  and  stared  at 
him,  to  see  what  he  was  going  to  make  with  his 
machinery.  And  what  do  you  think  he  was  doing? 
Brick-making.  With  his  two  big  wheels  he  swept 
together  all  the  mud  which  floated  in  the  water: 
all  that  was  nice  in  it  he  put  into  his  stomach  and  ate ; 
and  all  the  mud  he  put  into  the  little  wheel  on  his 
breast,  which  really  was  a  round  hole  set  with  teeth; 
and  there  he  spun  it  into  a  neat  hard  round  brick; 

[72] 


THE    WATER-BABIES 

and  then  he  took  it  and  stuck  it  on  the  top  of  his 
house-wall,  and  set  to  work  to  make  another.  Now 
was  not  he  a  clever  little  fellow? 

Tom  thought  so:  but  when  he  wanted  to  talk  to 
him  the  brick-maker  was  much  too  busy  and  proud 
of  his  work  to  take  notice  of  him. 

Now  you  must  know  that  all  the  things  under  the 
water  talk;  only  not  such  a  language  as  ours;  but 
such  as  horses,  and  dogs,  and  cows,  and  birds  talk 
to  each  other;  and  Tom  soon  learned  to  understand 
them  and  talk  to  them;  so  that  he  might  have  had 
very  pleasant  company  if  he  had  only  been  a  good 
boy.  But  I  am  sorry  to  say,  he  was  too  like  some 
other  little  boys,  very  fond  of  hunting  and  torment- 
ing creatures  for  mere  sport.  Some  people  say  that 
boys  cannot  help  it;  that  it  is  nature,  and  only  a  proof 
that  we  are  all  originally  descended  from  beasts 
of  prey.  But  whether  it  is  nature  or  not,  little  boys 
can  help  it,  and  must 'help  it.  For  if  they  have 
naughty,  low,  mischievous  tricks  in  their  nature,  as 
monkeys  have,  that  is  no  reason  why  they  should 
give  way  to  those  tricks  like  monkeys,  who  know  no 
better.  And  therefore  they  must  not  torment  dumb 
creatures;  for  if  they  do,  a  certain  old  lady  who  is 
coming  will  surely  give  them  exactly  what  they 
deserve. 

[73] 


THE    WATER-BABIES 

But  Tom  did 
not  know  that; 
and  he  pecked 
and  howked  the 
poor  water-things 
about  sadly,  till 
they  were  all 
afraid  of  him, 
and  got  out  of  his 
way,  or  crept  into 
their  shells;  so  he  had  no  one  to  speak  to  or  play 
with. 

The  water-fairies,  of  course,  were  very  sorry  to 
see  him  so  unhappy,  and  longed  to  take  him,  and 
tell  him  how  naughty  he  was,  and  teach  him  to  be 
good,  and  to  play  and  romp  with  him  too :  but  they 
had  been  forbidden  to  do  that.  Tom  had  to  learn 
his  lesson  for  himself  by  sound  and  sharp  experience, 
as  many  another  foolish  person  has  to  do,  though 
there  may  be  many  a  kind  heart  yearning  over  them 
all  the  while,  and  longing  to  teach  them  what  they 
can  only  teach  themselves. 

At  last  one  day  he  found  a  caddis,  and  wanted  it 
to  peep  out  of  its  house :  but  its  house-door  was  shut. 
He  had  never  seen  a  caddis  with  a  house-door  before : 
so  what  must  he  do,  the  meddlesome  little  fellow,  but 

[74] 


THE   WATER-BABIES 

pull  it  open,  to  see  what  the  poor  lady  was  doing 
inside.  What  a  shame !  How  should  you  like  to 
have  any  one  breaking  your  bedroom-door  in,  to  see 
how  you  looked  when  you  were  in  bed?  So  Tom 
broke  to  pieces  the  door,  which  was  the  prettiest  little 
grating  of  silk,  stuck  all  over  with  shining  bits  of 
crystal;  and  when  he  looked  in,  the  caddis  poked  out 
her  head,  and  it  had  turned  into  just  the  shape  of  a 
bird's.  But  when  Tom  spoke  to  her  she  could  not 
answer;  for  her  mouth  and  face  were  tight  tied  up  in 
a  new  night-cap  of  neat  pink  skin.  However,  if  she 
didn't  answer,  all  the  other  caddises  did;  for  they 
held  up  their  hands  and  shrieked  like  the  cats  in 
Struwelpeter :  "  Oh,  you  nasty  horrid  boy;  there  you 
are  at  it  again!  And  she  had  just  laid  herself  up  for 
a  fortnight's  sleep,  and  then  she  would  have  come 
out  with  such  beautiful  wings,  and  flown  about,  and 
laid  such  lots  of  eggs:  and  now  you  have  broken  her 
door,  and  she  can't  mend  it  because  her  mouth  is 
tied  up  for  a  fortnight,  and  she  will  die.  Who  sent 
you  here  to  worry  us  out  of  our  lives?" 

So  Tom  swam  away.  He  was  very  much  ashamed 
of  himself,  and  felt  all  the  naughtier;  as  little  boys 
do  when  they  have  done  wrong  and  won't  say  so. 

Then  he  came  to  a  pool  full  of  little  trout,  and 
began  tormenting  them,  and  trying  to  catch  them: 

[75] 


THE    WATER-BABIES 

but  they  slipped  through  his  fingers,  and  jumped 
dean  out  of  the  water  in  their  fright.  But  as  Tom 
chased  them,  he  came  close  to  a  great  dark  hover 
under  an  alder  root,  and  out  floushed  a  huge  old 
brown  trout  ten  times  as  big  as  he  was,  and  ran  right 
against  him,  and  knocked  all  the  breath  out  of  his 
body;  and  I  don't  know  which  was  the  more  fright- 
ened of  the  two. 

Then  he  went  on  sulky  and  lonely,  as  he  deserved 
to  be;  and  under  a  bank  he  saw  a  very  ugly  dirty 
creature  sitting,  about  half  as  big  as  himself,  which 
had  six  legs,  and  a  big  stomach,  and  a  most  ridiculous 
head  with  two  great  eyes  and  a  face  just  like  a 
donkey's. 

"  Oh,"  said  Tom,  "  you  are  an  ugly  fellow  to  be 
sure!  "  and  he  began  making  faces  at  him;  and  put 
his  nose  close  to  him,  and  halloed  at  him,  like  a  very 
rude  boy. 

When,  hey  presto!  all  the  thing's  donkey-face 
came  off  in  a  moment,  and  out  popped  a  long  arm 
with  a  pair  of  pincers  at  the  end  of  it,  and  caught 
Tom  by  the  nose.  It  did  not  hurt  him  much ;  but  it 
held  him  quite  tight. 

"  Yah,  ah !    Oh,  let  me  go !  "  cried  Tom. 
'  Then  let  me  go,"  said  the  creature.    "  I  want  to 
be  quiet.    I  want  to  split." 


THE    WATER-BABIES 

Tom  promised  to  let  him  alone,  and  he  let  go. 
"  Why  do  you  want  to  split?  "  said  Tom. 

"  Because  my  brothers  and  sisters  have  all  split, 
and  turned  into  beautiful  creatures  with  wings;  and 
I  want  to  split  too.  Don't  speak  to  me.  I  am  sure 
I  shall  split.  I  will  split!" 

Tom  stood  still,  and  watched  him.  And  he 
swelled  himself,  and  puffed,  and  stretched  himself 
out  stiff,  and  at  last — crack,  puff,  bang — he  opened 
all  down  his  back,  and  then  up  to  the  top  of  his 
head. 

And  out  of  his  inside  came  the  most  slender, 
elegant,  soft  creature,  as  soft  and  smooth  as  Tom: 
but  very  pale  and  weak,  like  a  little  child  who  has 
been  ill  a  long  time  in  a  dark  room.  It  moved  its 
legs  very  feebly;  and  looked  about  it  half  ashamed, 
like  a  girl  when  she  goes  for  the  first  time  into  a 
ballroom;  and  then  it  began  walking  slowly  up  a 
grass  stem  to  the  top  of  the  water. 

Tom  was  so  astonished  that  he  never  said  a  word: 
but  he  stared  with  all  his  eyes.  And  he  went  up  to 
the  top  of  the  water  too,  and  peeped  out  to  see  what 
would  happen. 

And  as  the  creature  sat  in  the  warm  bright  sun,  a 
wonderful  change  came  over  it.  It  grew  strong  and 
firm;  the  most  lovely  colours  began  to  show  on  its 

[77] 


THE    WATER-BABIES 

body,  blue  and  yellow  and  black,  spots  and  bars  and 
rings;  out  of  its  back  rose  four  great  wings  of  bright 
brown  gauze;  and  its  eyes  grew  so  large  that  they 
filled  all  its  head,  and  shone  like  ten  thousand 
diamonds. 

"  Oh,  you  beautiful  creature!  "  said  Tom;  and  he 
put  out  his  hand  to  catch  it. 

But  the  thing  whirred  up  into  the  air,  and  hung 
poised  on  its  wings  a  moment,  and  then  settled  down 
again  by  Tom  quite  fearless. 

"  No  I  "  it  said,  "  you  cannot  catch  me.  I  am  a 
dragon-fly  now,  the  king  of  all  the  flies;  and  I  shall 
dance  in  the  sunshine,  and  hawk  over  the  river,  and 
catch  gnats,  and  have  a  beautiful  wife  like  myself. 
I  know  what  I  shall  do.  Hurrah!  "  And  he  flew 
away  into  the  air,  and  began  catching  gnats. 

"  Oh !  come  back,  come  back,"  cried  Tom,  "  you 
beautiful  creature.  I  have  no  one  to  play  with,  and 
I  am  so  lonely  here.  If  you  will  but  come  back  I  will 
never  try  to  catch  you." 

"  I  don't  care  whether  you  do  or  not,"  said  the 
dragon-fly;  "  for  you  can't.  But  when  I  have  had 
my  dinner,  and  looked  a  little  about  this  pretty  place, 
I  will  come  back,  and  have  a  little  chat  about  all  I 
have  seen  in  my  travels.  Why,  what  a  huge  tree  this 
is !  and  what  huge  leaves  on  it!  " 

T78] 


THE   WATER-BABIES 

It  was  only  a  big  dock :  but  you  know  the  dragon- 
fly had  never  seen  any  but  little  water-trees ;  starwort, 
and  milfoil,  and  water-crowfoot,  and  such  like ;  so  it 
did  look  very  big  to  him.  Besides,  he  was  very  short- 
sighted, as  all  dragon-flies  are;  and  never  could  see  a 
yard  before  his  nose;  any  more  than  a  great  many 
other  folks,  who  are  not  half  as  handsome  as  he. 

The  dragon-fly  did  come  back,  and  chatted  away 
with  Tom.  He  was  a  little  conceited  about  his  fine 
colours  and  his  large  wings;  but  you  know,  he  had 
been  a  poor  dirty  ugly  creature  all  his  life  before;  so 
there  were  great  excuses  for  him.  He  was  very  fond 
of  talking  about  all  the  wonderful  things  he  saw  in 
the  trees  and  the  meadows;  and  Tom  liked  to  listen 
to  him,  for  he  had  forgotten  all  about  them.  So  in 
a  little  while  they  became  great  friends. 

And  I  am  very  glad  to  say,  that  Tom  learned  such 
a  lesson  that  day,  that  he  did  not  torment  creatures 
for  a  long  time  after.  And  then  the  caddises  grew 
quite  tame,  and  used  to  tell  him  strange  stories  about 
the  way  they  built  their  houses,  and  changed  their 
skins,  and  turned  at  last  into  winged  flies;  till  Tom 
began  to  long  to  change  his  skin,  and  have  wings  like 
them  some  day. 

And  the  trout  and  he  made  it  up  (for  trout  very 
soon  forget  if  they  have  been  frightened  and  hurt) . 

[79] 


THE    WATER-BABIES 

So  Tom  used  to  play  with  them  at  hare  and  hounds, 
and  great  fun  they  had ;  and  he  used  to  try  to  leap  out 
of  the  water,  head  over  heels,  as  they  did  before  a 
shower  came  on;  but  somehow  he  never  could  man- 
age it.  He  liked  most,  though,  to  see  them  rising 
at  the  flies,  as  they  sailed  round  and  round  under 
the  shadow  of  the  great  oak,  where  the  beetles  fell 
flop  into  the  water,  and  the  green  caterpillars  let 
themselves  down  from  the  boughs  by  silk  ropes  for 
no  reason  at  all;  and  then  changed  their  foolish  minds 
for  no  reason  at  all  either;  and  hauled  themselves 
up  again  into  the  tree,  rolling  up  the  rope  in  a  ball 
between  their  paws;  which  is  a  very  clever  rope 
dancer's  trick;  but  why  they  should  take  so  much 
trouble  about  it  no  one  can  tell. 

And  very  often  Tom  caught  them  just  as  they 
touched  the  water;  and  caught  the  alder-flies,  and  the 
caperers,  and  the  cock-tailed  duns  and  spinners,  yel- 
low, and  brown,  and  claret,  and  gray,  and  gave  them 
to  his  friends  the  trout.  Perhaps  he  was  not  quite 
kind  to  the  flies;  but  one  must  do  a  good  turn  to 
one's  friends  when  one  can. 

And  at  last  he  gave  up  catching  even  the  flies; 
for  he  made  acquaintance  with  one  by  accident  and 
found  him  a  very  merry  little  fellow.  And  this  was 
the  way  it  happened ;  and  it  is  all  quite  true. 

[80] 


THE    WATER-BABIES 

He  was  basking  at  the  top  of  the  water  one  hot 
day  in  July,  catching  duns  and  feeding  the  trout, 
when  he  saw  a  new  sort,  a  dark  gray  little  fellow  with 
a  brown  head.  He  was  a  very  little  fellow  indeed: 
but  he  made  the  most  of  himself,  as  people  ought 
to  do.  He  cocked  up  his  head,  and  he  cocked  up  his 
wings,  and  he  cocked  up  his  tail,  and  he  cocked  up  the 
two  whisks  at  his  tail-end,  and,  in  short,  he  looked 
the  cockiest  little  man  of  all  little  men.  And  so  he 
proved  to  be;  for  instead  of  getting  away,  he  hopped 
upon  Tom's  finger,  and  sat  there  as  bold  as  nine 
tailors;  and  he  cried  out  in  the  tiniest,  shrillest, 
squeakiest  little  voice  you  ever  heard, 

"  Much  obliged  to  you,  indeed;  but  I  don't  want 
it  yet." 

"Want  what?"  said  Tom,  quite  taken  aback  by 
his  impudence. 

"  Your  leg,  which  you  are  kind  enough  to  hold 
out  for  me  to  sit  on.  I  must  just  go  and  see  after  my 
wife  for  a  few  minutes.  Dear  me !  what  a  trouble- 
some business  a  family  is!"  (though  the  idle  little 
rogue  did  nothing  at  all,  but  left  his  poor  wife  to  lay 
all  the  eggs  by  herself) .  "  When  I  come  back,  I 
shall  be  glad  of  it,  if  you'll  be  so  good  as  to  keep  it 
sticking  out  just  so;  "  and  off  he  flew. 

Tom  thought  him  a  very  cool  sort  of  personage ; 
[81] 


THE   WATER-BABIES 

and  still  more  so,  when,  in  five  minutes,  he  came  back, 
and  said — "Ah,  you  were  tired  waiting?  Well, 
your  other  leg  will  do  as  well." 

And  he  popped  himself  down  on  Tom's  knee,  and 
began  chatting  away  in  his  squeaking  voice. 

"  So  you  live  under  the  water?  It's  a  low  place. 
I  lived  there  for  some  time;  and  was  very  shabby 


and  dirty.  But  I  didn't  choose  that  that  should  last. 
So  I  turned  respectable,  and  came  up  to  the  top,  and 
put  on  this  gray  suit.  It's  a  very  business-like  suit, 
you  think,  don't  you  ?  " 

"  Very  neat  and  quiet  indeed,"  said  Tom. 

"  Yes,  one  must  be  quiet  and  neat  and  respectable, 
and  all  that  sort  of  thing  for  a  little,  when  one  be- 
comes a  family  man.  But  I'm  tired  of  it,  that's  the 
truth.  I've  done  quite  enough  business,  I  consider, 
in  the  last  week,  to  last  me  my  life.  So  I  shall  put 
on  a  ball  dress,  and  go  out  and  be  a  smart  man,  and 
see  the  gay  world,  and  have  a  dance  or  two.  Why 
shouldn't  one  be  jolly  if  one  can?" 

"  And  what  will  become  of  your  wife?  " 
F82] 


THE    WATER- BABIES 

"  Oh !  she  is  a  very  plain  stupid  creature,  and 
that's  the  truth;  and  thinks  about  nothing  but  eggs. 
If  she  chooses  to  come,  why  she  may;  and  if  not, 
why  I  go  without  her; — and  here  I  go." 

And,  as  he  spoke,  he  turned  quite  pale,  and  then 
quite  white. 

"  Why,  you're  ill!  "  said  Tom.  But  he  did  not 
answer. 

"  You're  dead,"  said  Tom,  looking  at  him  as  he 
stood  on  his  knee  as  white  as  a  ghost. 

"  No,  I  ain't!  "  answered  a  little  squeaking  voice 
over  his  head.  "  This  is  me  up  here,  in  my  ball- 
dress;  and  that's  my  skin.  Ha,  ha  I  you  could  not 
do  such  a  trick  as  that!  " 

And  no  more  Tom  could,  nor  all  the  conjurors  in 
the  world.  For  the  little  rogue  had  jumped  clean 
out  of  his  own  skin,  and  left  it  standing  on  Tom's 
knee,  eyes,  wings,  legs,  tail,  exactly  as  if  it  had  been 
alive. 

"  Ha,  ha !  "  he  said,  and  he  jerked  and  skipped  up 
and  down,  never  stopping  an  instant,  just  as  if  he 
had  St.  Vitus's  dance.  "  Ain't  I  a  pretty  fellow 
now?" 

And  so  he  was;  for  his  body  was  white,  and  his 
tail  orange,  and  his  eyes  all  the  colours  of  a  peacock's 
tail.  And  what  was  the  oddest  of  all,  the  whisks  at 

[83] 


THE    WATER-BABIES 

the  end  of  his  tail  had  grown  five  times  as  long  as 
they  were  before. 

"  Ah !  "  said  he,  "  now  I  will  see  the  gay  world. 
My  living  won't  cost  me  much,  for  I  have  no  mouth, 
you  see,  and  no  inside ;  so  I  can  never  be  hungry  nor 
have  the  stomach-ache  neither." 

No  more  he  had.  He  had  grown  as  dry  and  hard 
and  empty  as  a  quill,  as  such  silly  shallow-hearted 
fellows  deserve  to  grow. 

But,  instead  of  being  ashamed  of  his  emptiness,  he 
was  quite  proud  of  it,  as  a  good  many  fine  gentle- 
men are,  and  began  flirting  and  flipping  up  and 
down,  and  singing — 

"  My  wife  shall  dance,  and  I  shall  sing, 

So  merrily  pass  the  day; 
For  I  hold  it  for  quite  the  wisest  thing, 

To  drive  dull  care  away" 

And  he  danced  up  and  down  for  three  days  and 
three  nights,  till  he  grew  so  tired,  that  he  tumbled 
into  the  water,  and  floated  down.  But  what  became 
of  him  Tom  never  knew,  and  he  himself  never 
minded;  for  Tom  heard  him  singing  to  the  last,  as 
he  floated  down — 

"  To  drive  dull  care  away-ay-ay!" 
[84] 


THE    WATER-BABIES 

And  if  he  did  not  care,  why  nobody  else  cared 
either. 

But  one  day  Tom  had  a  new  adventure.  He  was 
sitting  on  a  water-lily  leaf,  he  and  his  friend  the 
dragon-fly,  watching  the  gnats  dance.  The  dragon- 
fly had  eaten  as  many  as  he  wanted,  and  was  sitting 
quite  still  and  sleepy,  for  it  was  very  hot  and  bright. 
The  gnats  (who  did  not  care  the  least  for  their  poor 
brothers'  death)  danced  a  foot  over  his  head  quite 
happily,  and  a  large  black  fly  settled  within  an  inch 
of  his  nose,  and  began  washing  his  own  face  and 
combing  his  hair  with  his  paws:  but  the  dragon-fly 
never  stirred,  and  kept  on  chatting  to  Tom  about 
the  times  when  he  lived  under  the  water. 

Suddenly,  Tom  heard  the  strangest  noise  up  the 
stream;  cooing,  and  grunting,  and  whining,  and 
squeaking,  as  if  you  had  put  into  a  bag  two  stock- 
doves, nine  mice,  three  guinea-pigs,  and  a  blind 
puppy,  and  left  them  there  to  settle  themselves  and 
make  music. 

He  looked  up  the  water,  and  there  he  saw  a  sight 
as  strange  as  the  noise;  a  great  ball  rolling  over  and 
over  down  the  stream,  seeming  one  moment  of  soft 
brown  fur,  and  the  next  of  shining  glass :  and  yet  it 
was  not  a  ball;  for  sometimes  it  broke  up  and 
streamed  away  in  pieces,  and  then  it  joined  again; 

[85] 


THE   WATER-BABIES 

and  all  the  while  the  noise  came  out  of  it  louder  and 
louder. 

Tom  asked  the  dragon-fly  what  it  could  be :  but, 
of  course,  with  his  short  sight,  he  could  not  even  see 
it,  though  it  was  not  ten  yards  away.  So  he  took  the 
neatest  little  header  into  the  water,  and  started  off  to 
see  for  himself;  and,  when  he  came  near,  the  ball 
turned  out  to  be  four  or  five  beautiful  creatures, 
many  times  larger  than  Tom,  who  were  swimming 
about,  and  rolling,  and  diving,  and  twisting,  and 
wrestling,  and  cuddling,  and  kissing,  and  biting,  and 
scratching,  in  the  most  charming  fashion  that  ever 
was  seen.  And  if  you  don't  believe  me,  you  may  go 
to  the  Zoological  Gardens  (for  I  am  afraid  that 
you  won't  see  it  nearer,  unless,  perhaps,  you  get  up 
at  five  in  the  morning,  and  go  down  to  Cordery's 
Moor,  and  watch  by  the  great  withy  pollard  which 
hangs  over  the  backwater,  where  the  otters  breed 
sometimes),  and  then  say,  if  otters  at  play  in  the 
water  are  not  the  merriest,  lithest,  gracefullest  crea- 
tures you  ever  saw. 

But,  when  the  biggest  of  them  saw  Tom,  she 
darted  out  from  the  rest,  and  cried  in  the  water- 
language  sharply  enough,  "  Quick,  children,  here  is 
something  to  eat,  indeed!  "  and  came  at  poor  Tom, 
showing  such  a  wicked  pair  of  eyes,  and  such  a  set  of 

[86] 


THE    WATER- BABIES 

sharp  teeth  in  a  grinning  mouth,  that  Tom,  who  had 
thought  her  very  handsome,  said  to  himself,  Hand- 
some is  that  handsome  does,  and  slipped  in  between 
the  water-lily  roots  as  fast  as  he  could,  and  then 
turned  round  and  made  faces  at  her. 

"  Come  out,"  said  the  wicked  old  otter,  "  or  it  will 
be  worse  for  you." 

But  Tom  looked  at  her  from  between  two  thick 
roots,  and  shook  them  with  all  his  might,  making 
horrible  faces  all  the  while,  just  as  he  used  to  grin 
through  the  railings  at  the  old  women,  when  he  lived 
before.  It  was  not  quite  well  bred,  no  doubt ;  but  you 
know,  Tom  had  not  finished  his  education  yet. 

"  Come  away,  children,"  said  the  otter  in  disgust, 
"  it  is  not  worth  eating,  after  all.  It  is  only  a  nasty 
eft,  which  nothing  eats,  not  even  those  vulgar  pike  in 
the  pond." 

"  I  am  not  an  eft!  "  said  Tom;  "  efts  have  tails." 

"  You  are  an  eft,"  said  the  otter,  very  positively; 
"  I  see  your  two  hands  quite  plain,  and  I  know  you 
have  a  tail." 

"  I  tell  you  I  have  not,"  said  Tom.  "  Look 
here !  "  and  he  turned  his  pretty  little  self  quite 
round;  and,  sure  enough,  he  had  no  more  tail  than 
you. 

The  otter  might  have  got  out  of  it  by  saying  that 

[87] 


THE   WATER-BABIES 

Tom  was  a  frog:  but,  like  a  great  many  other  people, 
when  she  had  once  said  a  thing,  she  stood  to  it,  right 
or  wrong;  so  she  answered: 

"  I  say  you  are  an  eft,  and  therefore  you  are,  and 
not  fit  food  for  gentlefolk  like  me  and  my  children. 
You  may  stay  here  till  the  salmon  eat  you  (she  knew 


the  salmon  would  not,  but  she  wanted  to  frighten 
poor  Tom).  Ha!  ha!  they  will  eat  you,  and  we 
will  eat  them;  "  and  the  otter  laughed  such  a  wicked 
cruel  laugh — as  you  may  hear  them  do  sometimes; 
and  the  first  time  that  you  hear  it  you  will  probably 
think  it  is  bogies. 

"What  are  salmon?"  asked  Tom. 

"  Fish,  you  eft,  great  fish,  nice  fish  to  eat.  They 
are  the  lords  of  the  fish,  and  we  are  lords  of  the 
salmon;  "  and  she  laughed  again.  "We  hunt  them 

[88] 


THE    WATER-BABIES 

up  and  down  the  pools,  and  drive  them  up  into  a 
corner,  the  silly  things ;  they  are  so  proud,  and  bully 
the  little  trout,  and  the  minnows,  till  they  see  us 
coming,  and  then  they  are  so  meek  all  at  once;  and 
we  catch  them,  but  we  disdain  to  eat  them  all;  we 
just  bite  out  their  soft  throats  and  suck  their  sweet 
juice — Oh,  so  good! T' — (and  she  licked  her  wicked 
lips) — "  and  then  throw  them  away,  and  go  and 
catch  another.  They  are  coming  soon,  children, 
coming  soon ;  I  can  smell  the  rain  coming  up  off  the 
sea,  and  then  hurrah  for  a  freshet,  and  salmon,  and 
plenty  of  eating  all  day  long." 

And  the  otter  grew  so  proud  that  she  turned  head 
over  heels  twice,  and  then  stood  upright  half  out  of 
the  water,  grinning  like  a  Cheshire  cat. 

"  And  where  do  they  come  from?  "  asked  Tom, 
who  kept  himself  very  close,  for  he  was  considerably 
frightened. 

"  Out  of  the  sea,  eft,  the  great  wide  sea,  where 
they  might  stay  and  be  safe  if  they  liked.  But  out 
of  the  sea  the  silly  things  come,  into  the  great  river 
down  below,  and  we  come  up  to  watch  for  them;  and 
when  they  go  down  again  we  go  down  and  follow 
them.  And  there  we  fish  for  the  bass  and  the  pol- 
lock, and  have  jolly  days  along  the  shore,  and  toss 
and  roll  in  the  breakers,  and  sleep  snug  in  the  warm 

[89] 


THE    WATER-BABIES 

dry  crags.  Ah,  that  is  a  merry  life  too,  children,  if 
it  were  not  for  those  horrid  men." 

"  What  are  men?  "  asked  Tom;  but  somehow  he 
seemed  to  know  before  he  asked. 

"  Two-legged  things,  eft:  and,  now  I  come  to  look 
at  you,  they  are  actually  something  like  you,  if  you 
had  not  a  tail"  (she  was  determined  that  Tom 
should  have  a  tail),  "  only  a  great  deal  bigger,  worse 
luck  for  us;  and  they  catch  the  fish  with  hooks  and 
lines,  which  get  into  our  feet  sometimes,  and  set 
pots  along  the  rocks  to  catch  lobsters.  They  speared 
my  poor  dear  husband  as  he  went  out  to  find  some- 
thing for  me  to  eat.  I  was  laid  up  among  the  crags 
then,  and  we  were  very  low  in  the  world,  for  the 
sea  was  so  rough  that  no  fish  would  come  in  shore. 
But  they  speared  him,  poor  fellow,  and  I  saw  them 
carrying  him  away  upon  a  pole.  Ah,  he  lost  his  life 
for  your  sakes,  my  children,  poor  dear  obedient  crea- 
ture that  he  was." 

And  the  otter  grew  so  sentimental  (for  otters  can 
be  very  sentimental  when  they  choose,  like  a  good 
many  people  who  are  both  cruel  and  greedy,  and  no 
good  to  anybody  at  all)  that  she  sailed  solemnly 
away  down  the  burn,  and  Tom  saw  her  no  more  for 
that  time.  And  lucky  it  was  for  her  that  she  did  so; 
for  no  sooner  was  she  gone,  than  down  the  bank  came 

[90] 


THE    WATER-BABIES 

seven  little  rough  terrier  dogs,  snuffing  and  yapping, 
and  grubbing  and  splashing,  in  full  cry  after  the 
otter.  Tom  hid  among  the  water-lilies  till  they  were 
gone;  for  he  could  not  guess  that  they  were  the 
water-fairies  come  to  help  him. 

But  he  could  not  help  thinking  of  what  the  otter 
had  said  about  the  great  river  and  the  broad  sea. 
And,  as  he  thought,  he  longed  to  go  and  see  them. 
He  could  not  tell  why ;  but  the  more  he  thought,  the 
more  he  grew  discontented  with  the  narrow  little 
stream  in  which  he  lived,  and  all  his  companions 
there;  and  wanted  to  get  out  into  the  wide  wide 
world,  and  enjoy  all  the  wonderful  sights  of  which 
he  was  sure  it  was  full. 

And  once  he  set  off  to  go  down  the  stream.  But 
the  stream  was  very  low;  and  when  he  came  to  the 
shallows  he  could  not  keep  under  water,  for  there 
was  no  water  left  to  keep  under.  So  the  sun  burned 
his  back  and  made  him  sick;  and  he  went  back 
again  and  lay  quiet  in  the  pool  for  a  whole  week 
more. 

And  then,  on  the  evening  of  a  very  hot  day,  he 
saw  a  sight. 

He  had  been  very  stupid  all  day,  and  so  had  the 
trout;  for  they  would  not  move  an  inch  to  take  a  fly, 
though  there  were  thousands  on  the  water,  but  lay 

[91] 


THE    WATER-BABIES 

dozing  at  the  bottom  under  the  shade  of  the  stones; 
and  Tom  lay  dozing  too,  and  was  glad  to  cuddle 
their  smooth  cool  sides,  for  the  water  was  quite 
warm  and  unpleasant. 

But  toward  evening  it  grew  suddenly  dark,  and 
Tom  looked  up  and  saw  a  blanket  of  black  clouds 
lying  right  across  the  valley  above  his  head,  resting 
on  the  crags  right  and  left.  He  felt  not  quite  fright- 
ened, but  very  still;  for  everything  was  still.  There 
was  not  a  whisper  of  wind,  nor  a  chirp  of  a  bird  to  be 
heard;  and  next  a  few  great  drops  of  rain  fell  plop 
into  the  water,  and  one  hit  Tom  on  the  nose,  and 
made  him  pop  his  head  down  quickly  enough. 

And  then  the  thunder  roared,  and  the  lightning 
flashed,  and  leapt  across  Vendale  and  back  again, 
from  cloud  to  cloud,  and  cliff  to  cliff,  till  the  very 
rocks  in  the  stream  seemed  to  shake :  and  Tom  looked 
up  at  it  through  the  water,  and  thought  it  the  finest 
thing  he  ever  saw  in  his  life. 

But  out  of  the  water  he  dared  not  put  his  head; 
for  the  rain  came  down  by  bucketsful,  and  the  hail 
hammered  like  shot  on  the  stream,  and  churned  it 
into  foam;  and  soon  the  stream  rose,  and  rushed 
down,  higher  and  higher,  and  fouler  and  fouler,  full 
of  beetles,  and  sticks;  and  straws,  and  worms,  and 
addle-eggs,  and  wood-lice,  and  leeches,  and  odds 

[92] 


THE    WATER-BABIES 

and  ends,  and  omnium-gatherums,  and  this,  that,  and 
the  other,  enough  to  fill  nine  museums. 

Tom  could  hardly  stand  against  the  stream,  and 
hid  behind  a  rock.  But  the  trout  did  not;  for  out 
they  rushed  from  among  the  stones,  and  began  gob- 
bling the  beetles  and  leeches  in  the  most  greedy  and 
quarrelsome  way,  and  swimming  about  with  great 
worms  hanging  out  of  their  mouths,  tugging  and 
kicking  to  get  them  away  from  each  other. 

And  now,  by  the  flashes  of  the  lightning,  Tom  saw 
a  new  sight — all  the  bottom  of  the  stream  alive  with 
great  eels,  turning  and  twisting  along,  all  down 
stream  and  away.  They  had  been  hiding  for  weeks 
past  in  the  cracks  of  the  rocks,  and  in  burrows  in 
the  mud;  and  Tom  had  hardly  ever  seen  them,  ex- 
cept now  and  then  at  night:  but  now  they  were  all 
out,  and  went  hurrying  past  him  so  fiercely  and 
wildly  that  he  was  quite  frightened.  And  as  they 
hurried  past  he  could  hear  them  say  to  each  other, 
"  We  must  run,  we  must  run.  What  a  jolly  thunder- 
storm !  Down  to  the  sea,  down  to  the  sea !  " 

And  then  the  otter  came  by  with  all  her  brood, 
twining  and  sweeping  along  as  fast  as  the  eels  them- 
selves; and  she  spied  Tom  as  she  came  by,  and  said: 

"  Now  is  your  time,  eft,  if  you  want  to  see  the 
world.  Come  along,  children,  never  mind  those 

[931 


THE    WATER-BABIES 

nasty  eels :  we  shall  breakfast  on  salmon  to-morrow. 
Down  to  the  sea,  down  to  the  sea !  " 

Then  came  a  flash  brighter  than  all  the  rest,  and 
by  the  light  of  it — in  the  thousandth  part  of  a  second 
they  were  gone  again — but  he  had  seen  them,  he  was 
certain  of  it — three  beautiful  little  white  girls,  with 
their  arms  twined  round  each  other's  necks,  floating 
down  the  torrent,  as  they  sang,  "  Down  to  the  sea, 
down  to  the  sea  !  " 

"  Oh  stay!  Wait  for  me !  "  cried  Tom;  but  they 
were  gone:  yet  he  could  hear  their  voices  clear  and 
sweet  through  the  roar  of  thunder  and  water  and 
wind,  singing  as  they  died  away,  "  Down  to  the 
sea!" 

"  Down  to  the  sea?"  said  Tom;  "  everything  is 
going  to  the  sea,  and  I  will  go  too.  Good-bye, 
trout."  But  the  trout  were  so  busy  gobbling  worms 
that  they  never  turned  to  answer  him;  so  that  Tom 
was  spared  the  pain  of  bidding  them  farewell. 

And  now,  down  the  rushing  stream,  guided  by  the 
bright  flashes  of  the  storm;  past  tall  birch-fringed 
rocks,  which  shone  out  one  moment  as  clear  as  day, 
and  the  next  were  dark  as  night;  past  dark  hovers 
under  swirling  banks,  from  which  great  trout  rushed 
out  on  Tom,  thinking  him  to  be  good  to  eat,  and 
turned  back  sulkily,  for  the  fairies  sent  them  home 

[94] 


THE    WATER-BABIES 

again  with  a  tremendous  scolding,  for  daring  to 
meddle  with  a  water-baby;  on  through  narrow  strid» 
and  roaring  cataracts,  where  Tom  was  deafened  and 
blinded  for  a  moment  by  the  rushing  waters ;  along 
deep  reaches,  where  the  white  water-lilies  tossed  and 
flapped  beneath  the  wind  and  hail;  past  sleeping 
villages;  under  dark  bridge-arches,  and  away  and 
away  to  the  sea.  And  Tom  could  not  stop,  and  did 
not  care  to  stop;  he  would  see  the  great  world  below, 
and  the  salmon,  and  the  breakers,  and  the  wide  wide 
sea. 

And  when  the  daylight  came,  Tom  found  himself 
out  in  the  salmon  river. 

And  after  a  while  he  came  to  a  place  where  the 
river  spread  out  into  broad  still  shallow  reaches,  so 
wide  that  little  Tom,  as  he  put  his  head  out  of  the 
water,  could  hardly  see  across. 

And  there  he  stopped.  He  got  a  little  frightened. 
u  This  must  be  the  sea,"  he  thought.  "  What  a  wide 
place  it  is!  If  I  go  on  into  it  I  shall  surely  lose  my 
way,  or  some  strange  thing  will  bite  me.  I  will  stop 
here  and  look  out  for  the  otter,  or  the  eels,  or  some 
one  to  tell  me  where  I  shall  go." 

So  he  went  back  a  little  way,  and  crept  into  a 
crack  of  the  rock,  just  where  the  river  opened  out 
into  the  wide  shallows,  and  watched  for  some  one  to 

[95] 


THE    WATER-BABIES 

tell  him  his  way:  but  the  otter  and  the  eels  were  gone 
on  miles  and  miles  down  the  stream. 

There  he  waited,  and  slept  too,  for  he  was  quite 
tired  with  his  night's  journey;  and,  when  he  woke, 
the  stream  was  clearing  to  a  beautiful  amber  hue, 
though  it  was  still  very  high.  And  after  a  while  he 
saw  a  sight  which  made  him  jump  up ;  for  he  knew 


in  a  moment  it  was  one  of  the  things  which  he  had 
come  to  look  for. 

Such  a  fish !  ten  times  as  big  as  the  biggest  trout, 
and  a  hundred  times  as  big  as  Tom,  sculling  up  the 
stream  past  him,  as  easily  as  Tom  had  sculled 
down. 

Such  a  fish!  shining  silver  from  head  to  tail,  and 
here  and  there  a  crimson  dot;  with  a  grand  hooked 
nose  and  grand  curling  lip,  and  a  grand  bright  eye, 
looking  round  him  as  proudly  as  a  king,  and  sur- 
veying the  water  right  and  left  as  if  all  belonged  to 
him.  Surely  he  must  be  the  salmon,  the  king  of  all 
the  fish. 

[96] 


THE    WATER-BABIES 

Tom  was  so  frightened  that  he  longed  to  creep 
into  a  hole;  but  he  need  not  have  been;  for  salmon 
are  all  true  gentlemen,  and,  like  true  gentlemen,  they 
look  noble  and  proud  enough,  and  yet,  like  true 
gentlemen,  they  never  harm  or  quarrel  with  any  one, 
but  go  about  their  own  business,  and  leave  rude  fel- 
lows to  themselves. 

The  salmon  looked  at  him  full  in  the  face,  and 
then  went  on  without  minding  him,  with  a  swish 
or  two  of  his  tail  which  made  the  stream  boil  again. 
And  in  a  few  minutes  came  another,  and  then  four 
or  five,  and  so  on;  and  all  passed  Tom,  rushing  and 
plunging  up  the  cataract  with  strong  strokes  of  their 
silver  tails,  now  and  then  leaping  clean  out  of  water 
and  up  over  a  rock,  shining  gloriously  for  a  moment 
in  the  bright  sun,  while  Tom  was  so  delighted  that 
he  could  have  watched  them  all  day  long. 

And  at  last  one  came  up  bigger  than  all  the  rest; 
but  he  came  slowly,  and  stopped,  and  looked  back, 
and  seemed  very  anxious  and  busy.  And  Tom  saw 
that  he  was  helping  another  salmon,  an  especially 
handsome  one,  who  had  not  a  single  spot  upon  it, 
but  was  clothed  in  pure  silver  from  nose  to  tail. 

"  My  dear,"  said  the  great  fish  to  his  companion, 
11  you  really  look  dreadfully  tired,  and  you  must  not 
Over-exert  yourself  at  first.  Do  rest  yourself  behind 

[Q7l« 


THE   WATER- BABIES 

this  rock;  "  and  he  shoved  her  gently  with  his  nose, 
to  the  rock  where  Tom  sat. 

You  must  know  that  this  was  the  salmon's  wife. 
For  salmon,  like  other  true  gentlemen,  always  choose 
their  lady,  and  love  her,  and  are  true  to  her,  and  take 
care  of  her  and  work  for  her,  and  fight  for  her,  as 
every  true  gentleman  ought ;  and  are  not  like  vulgar 
chub  and  roach  and  pike,  who  have  no  high  feelings, 
and  take  no  care  of  their  wives. 

Then  he  saw  Tom,  and  looked  at  him  very  fiercely 
one  moment,  as  if  he  was  going  to  bite  him. 

"  What  do  you  want  here  ?  "  he  said,  very  fiercely. 

"  Oh,  don't  hurt  me !  "  cried  Tom.  "  I  only  want 
to  look  at  you ;  you  are  so  handsome." 

"Ah!"  said  the  salmon,  very  stately  but  very 
civilly.  "  I  really  beg  your  pardon;  I  see  what  you 
are,  my  little  dear.  I  have  met  one  or  two  creatures 
like  you  before,  and  found  them  very  agreeable  and 
well-behaved.  Indeed,  one  of  them  showed  me  a 
great  kindness  lately,  which  I  hope  to  be  able  to  re- 
pay. I  hope  we  shall  not  be  in  your  way  here.  As 
soon  as  this  lady  is  rested,  we  shall  proceed  on  our 
journey." 

What  a  well-bred  old  salmon  he  was  I 

"  So  you  have  seen  things  like  me  before?  "  asked 
Tom. 

[98] 


THE    WATER-BABIES 

"  Several  times,  my  dear.  Indeed,  it  was  only 
last  night  that  one  at  the  river's  mouth  came  and 
warned  me  and  my  wife  of  some  new  stake-nets 
which  had  got  into  the  stream,  I  cannot  tell  how, 
since  last  winter,  and  showed  us  the  way  round  them, 
in  the  most  charmingly  obliging  way." 

"  So  there  are  babies  in  the  sea?  "  cried  Tom,  and 
clapped  his  little  hands.  "  Then  I  shall  have  some 
one  to  play  with  there?  How  delightful!  " 

"Were  there  no  babies  up  this  stream?"  asked 
the  lady  salmon. 

"  No !  and  I  grew  so  lonely.  I  thought  I  saw 
three  last  night;  but  they  were  gone  in  an  instant, 
down  to  the  sea.  So  I  went  too ;  for  I  had  nothing 
to  play  with  but  caddises  and  dragon-flies  and  trout." 

"  Ugh!  "  cried  the  lady,  "  what  low  company!  " 

"  My  dear,  if  he  has  been  in  low  company,  he  has 
certainly  not  learnt  their  low  manners,"  said  the 
salmon. 

"No,  indeed,  poor  little  dear:  but  how  sad  for 
him  to  live  among  such  people  as  caddises,  who  have 
actually  six  legs,  the  nasty  things;  and  dragon-flies, 
too!  why  they  are  not  ev^n  good  to  eat;  for  I  tried 
them  once,  and  they  are  all  hard  and  empty;  and,  as 
for  trout,  every  one  V.uows  what  they  are."  Whereon 
she  curled  up  her  lip,  and  looked  dreadfully  scornful, 

[99l 


THE    WATER-BABIES 

while  her  husband  curled  up  his  too,  till  he  looked  as 
proud  as  Alcibiades. 

"  Why  do  you  dislike  the  trout  so?  "  asked  Tom. 

"  My  dear,  we  do  not  even  mention  them,  if  we 
can  help  it;  for  I  am  sorry  to  say  they  are  relations 
of  ours  who  do  us  no  credit.  A  great  many  years 
ago  they  were  just  like  us :  but  they  were  so  lazy,  and 
cowardly,  and  greedy,  that  instead  of  going  down  to 
the  sea  every  year  to  see  the  world  and  grow  strong 
and  fat,  they  chose  to  stay  and  poke  about  in  the  little 
streams  and  eat  worms  and  grubs;  and  they  are  very 
properly  punished  for  it;  for  they  have  grown  ugly 
and  brown  and  spotted  and  small;  and  are  actually 
so  degraded  in  their  tastes,  that  they  will  eat  our 
children." 

"  And  then  they  pretend  to  scrape  acquaintance 
with  us  again,"  said  the  lady.  "  Why,  I  have  actu- 
ally known  one  of  them  propose  to  a  lady  salmon, 
the  impudent  little  creature." 

"  I  should  hope,"  said  the  gentleman,  "  that  there 
are  very  few  ladies  of  our  race  who  would  degrade 
themselves  by  listening  to  such  a  creature  for  an 
instant.  If  I  saw  such  a  thing  happen,  I  should  con- 
sider it  my  duty  to  put  them  both  to  death  upon  the 
spot."  So  the  old  salmon  said,  like  an  old  blue- 
blooded  hidalgo  of  Spain;  and  what  is  more,  he 


THE    WATER-BABIES 

would  have  done  it  too.  For  you  must  know,  no 
enemies  are  so  bitter  against  each  other  as  those 
who  are  of  the  same  race;  and  a  salmon  looks  on  a 
trout  as  some  great  folks  look  on  some  little  folks, 
as  something  just  too  much  like  himself  to  be 
tolerated. 


[101] 


CHAPTER  IV 

SO  the  salmon  went  up,  after  Tom  had  warned 
them   of  the   wicked   old   otter;    and  Tom 
went    down,     but     slowly     and    cautiously, 
coasting  along  the  shore.    He  was  many  days  about 
it,  for  it  was  many  miles  down  to  the  sea ;  and  per- 
haps he  would  never  have  found  his  way,  if  the 
fairies  had  not  guided  him,  without  his  seeing  their 
fair  faces,  or  feeling  their  gentle  hands. 

And,  as  he  went,  he  had  a  very  strange  adventure. 
It  was  a  clear  still  September  night,  and  the  moon 
shone  so  brightly  down  through  the  water,  that  he 
could  not  sleep,  though  he  shut  his  eyes  as  tight  as 
possible.  So  at  last  he  came  up  to  the  top,  and  sat 
upon  a  little  point  of  rock,  and  looked  up  at  the 
broad  yellow  moon,  and  wondered  what  she  was, 
and  thought  that  she  looked  at  him.  And  he  watched 

r  102 1 


THE   WATER-BABIES 

the  moonlight  on  the  rippling  river,  and  the  black 
heads  of  the  firs,  and  the  silver-frosted  lawns,  and 
listened  to  the  owl's  hoot,  and  the  snipe's  bleat,  and 
the  fox's  bark,  and  the  otter's  laugh;  and  smelt  the 
soft  perfume  of  the  birches,  and  the  wafts  of  heather 
honey  off  the  grouse  moor  far  above;  and  felt  very 
happy,  though  he  could  not  well  tell  why.  You,  of 
course,  would  have  been  very  cold  sitting  there  on 
a  September  night,  without  the  least  bit  of  clothes 
on  your  wet  back;  but  Tom  was  a  water-baby,  and 
therefore  felt  cold  no  more  than  a  fish. 

Suddenly,  he  saw  a  beautiful  sight.  A  bright  red 
light  moved  along  the  river-side,  and  threw  down 
into  the  water  a  long  tap-root  of  flame.  Tom,  curi- 
ous little  rogue  that  he  was,  must  needs  go  and  see 
what  it  was;  so  he  swam  to  the  shore,  and  met  the 
light  as  it  stopped  over  a  shallow  run  at  the  edge  of 
a  low  rock. 

And  there,  underneath  the  light,  lay  five  or  six 
great  salmon,  looking  up  at  the  flame  with  their 
great  goggle  eyes,  and  wagging  their  tails,  as  if  they 
were  very  much  pleased  at  it. 

Tom  came  to  the  top,  to  look  at  this  wonderful 
light  nearer,  and  made  a  splash. 

And  he  heard  a  voice  say: 

"  There  was  a  fish  rose." 
[  103] 


THE    WATER-BABIES 

He  did  not  know  what  the  words  meant:  but  he 
seemed  to  know  the  sound  of  them,  and  to  know  the 
voice  which  spoke  them;  and  he  saw  on  the  bank 
three  great  two-legged  creatures,  one  of  whom  held 
the  light,  flaring  and  sputtering,  and  another  a  long 
pole.  And  he  knew  that  they  were  men,  and  was 
frightened,  and  crept  into  a  hole  in  the  rock,  from 
which  he  could  see  what  went  on. 

The  man  with  the  torch  bent  down  over  the  water, 
and  looked  earnestly  in;  and  then  he  said: 

"  Tak'  that  muckle  fellow,  lad;  he's  ower  fifteen 
punds;  and  haud  your  hand  steady." 

Tom  felt  that  there  was  some  danger  coming,  and 
longed  to  warn  the  foolish  salmon,  who  kept  staring 
up  at  the  light  as  if  he  was  bewitched.  But  before 
he  could  make  up  his  mind,  down  came  the  pole 
through  the  water;  there  was  a  fearful  splash  and 
struggle,  and  Tom  saw  that  the  poor  salmon  was 
speared  right  through,  and  was  lifted  out  of  the 
water. 

And  then,  from  behind,  there  sprang  on  these 
three  men  three  other  men;  and  there  were  shouts, 
and  blows,  and  words  which  Tom  recollected  to  have 
heard  before;  and  he  shuddered  and  turned  sick  at 
them  now,  for  he  felt  somehow  that  they  were 
strange,  and  ugly,  and  wrong,  and  horrible.  And 
[104] 


THE    WATER- BABIES 

it  all  began  to  come  back  to  him.  They  were  men; 
and  they  were  fighting;  savage,  desperate,  up-and- 
down  fighting,  such  as  Tom  had  seen  too  many  times 
before. 

And  he  stopped  his  little  ears,  and  longed  to  swim 
away;  and  was  very  glad  that  he  was  a  water-baby, 
and  had  nothing  to  do  any  more  with  horrid  dirty 
men,  with  foul  clothes  on  their  backs,  and  foul  words 
on  their  lips;  but  he  dared  not  stir  out  of  his  hole: 
while  the  rock  shook  over  his  head  with  the  tramp- 
ling and  struggling  of  the  keepers  and  the  poachers. 

All  of  a  sudden  there  was  a  tremendous  splash, 
and  a  frightful  flash,  and  a  hissing,  and  all  was 
still. 

For  into  the  water,  close  to  Tom,  fell  one  of  the 
men;  he  who  held  the  light  in  his  hand.  Into  the 
swift  river  he  sank,  and  rolled  over  and  over  in  the 
current.  Tom  heard  the  men  above  run  along,  seem- 
ingly looking  for  him;  but  he  drifted  down  into  the 
deep  hole  below,  and  there  lay  quite  still,  and  they 
could  not  find  him. 

Tom  waited  a  long  time,  till  all  was  quiet;  and 
then  he  peeped  out,  and  saw  the  man  lying.  At  last 
he  screwed  up  his  courage  and  swam  down  to  him. 
"  Perhaps,"  he  thought,  "  the  water  has  made  him 
fall  asleep,  as  it  did  me." 

[105] 


THE   WATER- BABIES 

Then  he  went  nearer.  He  grew  more  and  more 
curious,  he  could  not  tell  why.  He  must  go  and  look 
at  him.  He  would  go  very  quietly,  of  course ;  so  he 
swam  round  and  round  him,  closer  and  closer;  and, 
as  he  did  not  stir,  at  last  he  came  quite  close  and 
looked  him  in  the  face. 

The  moon  shone  so  bright  that  Tom  could  see 
every  feature;  and,  as  he  saw,  he  recollected,  bit  by 
bit,  it  was  his  old  master,  Grimes. 

Tom  turned  tail,  and  swam  away  as  fast  as  he 
could. 

"  Oh  dear  me !  "  he  thought,  "  now  he  will  turn 
into  a  water-baby.  What  a  nasty  troublesome  one 
he  will  be !  And  perhaps  he  will  find  me  out,  and 
beat  me  again." 

So  he  went  up  the  river  again  a  little  way,  and  lay 
there  the  rest  of  the  night  under  an  alder  root;  but, 
when  morning  came,  he  longed  to  go  down  again  to 
the  big  pool,  and  see  whether  Mr.  Grimes  had  turned 
into  a  water-baby  yet. 

So  he  went  very  carefully,  peeping  round  all  the 
rocks,  and  hiding  under  all  the  roots.  Mr.  Grimes 
lay  there  still;  he  had  not  turned  into  a  water-baby. 
In  the  afternoon  Tom  went  back  again.  He  could 
not  rest  till  he  had  found  out  what  had  become  of 
Mr.  ^Grimes.  But  this  time  Mr.  Grimes  was  gone ; 
[  106  ] 


THE    WATER-BABIES 

and  Tom  made  up  his  mind  that  he  was  turned  into 
a  water-baby. 

He  might  have  made  himself  easy,  poor  little 
man;  Mr.  Grimes  did  not  turn  into  a  water-baby,  or 
anything  like  one  at  all.  But  he  did  not  make  him- 
self easy;  and  a  long  time  he  was  fearful  lest  he 
should  meet  Grimes  suddenly  in  some  deep  pool. 
He  could  not  know  that  the  fairies  had  carried  him 
away,  and  put  him,  where  they  put  everything  which 
falls  into  the  water,  exactly  where  it  ought  to  be. 
But,  do  you  know,  what  had  happened  to  Mr.  Grimes 
had  such  an  effect  on  him  that  he  never  poached 
salmon  any  more.  And  it  is  quite  certain  that,  when 
a  man  becomes  a  confirmed  poacher,  the  only  way  to 
cure  him  is  to  put  him  under  water  for  twenty-four 
hours  like  Grimes. 

Then  Tom  went  on  down,  for  he  was  afraid  of 
staying  near  Grimes:  and  as  he  went,  all  the  vale 
looked  sad.  The  red  and  yellow  leaves  showered 
down  into  the  river;  the  flies  and  beetles  were  all 
dead  and  gone;  the  chill  autumn  fog  lay  low  upon 
the  hills,  and  sometimes  spread  itself  so  thickly  on 
the  river  that  he  could  not  see  his  way.  But  he  felt 
his  way  instead,  following  the  flow  of  the  stream, 
day  after  day,  past  great  bridges,  past  boats  and 
barges,  past  the  great  town,  with  its  wharfs,  and 

[107] 


THE   WATER-BABIES 

mills,  and  tall  smoking  chimneys,  and  ships  which 
rode  at  anchor  in  the  stream;  and  now  and  then  he 
ran  against  their  hawsers,  and  wondered  what  they 
were,  and  peeped  out,  and  saw  the  sailors  lounging 
on  board  smoking  their  pipes;  and  ducked  under 
again,  for  he  was  terribly  afraid  of  being  caught  by 
man  and  turned  into  a  chimney-sweep  once  more. 
He  did  not  know  that  the  fairies  were  close  to  him 
always,  shutting  the  sailors'  eyes  lest  they  should 
see  him,  and  turning  him  aside  from  millraces,  and 
sewer-mouths,  and  all  foul  and  dangerous  things. 
Poor  little  fellow,  it  was  a  dreary  journey  for  him; 
and  more  than  once  he  longed  to  be  back  in  Vendale, 
playing  with  the  trout  in  the  bright  summer  sun.  But 
it  could  not  be.  What  has  been  once  can  never  come 
over  again.  And  people  can  be  little  babies,  even 
water-babies,  only  once  in  their  lives. 

Besides,  people  who  make  up  their  minds  to  go 
and  see  the  world,  as  Tom  did,  must  needs  find  it  a 
weary  journey.  Lucky  for  them  if  they  do  not  lose 
heart  and  stop  half-way,  instead  of  going  on  bravely 
to  the  end  as  Tom  did.  For  then  they  will  remain 
neither  boys  nor  men,  neither  fish,  flesh,  nor  good 
red-herring:  having  learnt  a  great  deal  too  much, 
and  yet  not  enough;  and  sown  their  wild  oats,  with- 
out having  the  advantage  of  reaping  them. 
[108] 


THE    WATER- BABIES 

But  Tom  was  always  a  brave,  determined,  little 
English  bull-dog,  who  never  knew  when  he  was 
beaten;  and  on  and  on  he  held,  till  he  saw  a  long 
way  off  the  red  buoy  through  the  fog.  And  then  he 
found,  to  his  surprise,  the  stream  turned  round,  and 
running  up  inland. 

It  was  the  tide,  of  course :  but  Tom  knew  nothing 
of  the  tide.  He  only  knew  that  in  a  minute  more  the 
water,  which  had  been  fresh,  turned  salt  all  round 
him.  And  then  there  came  a  change  over  him.  He 
felt  as  strong,  and  light,  and  fresh,  as  if  his  veins  had 
run  champagne;  and  gave,  he  did  not  know  why, 
three  skips  out  of  the  water,  a  yard  high,  and  head 
over  heels,  just  as  the  salmon  do  when  they  first 
touch  the  noble  rich  salt  water,  which,  as  some  wise 
men  tell  us,  is  the  mother  of  all  living  things. 

He  did  not  care  now  for  the  tide  being  against 
him.  The  red  buoy  was  in  sight,  dancing  in  the  open 
sea ;  and  to  the  buoy  he  would  go,  and  to  it  he  went. 
He  passed  great  shoals  of  bass  and  mullet,  leaping 
and  rushing  in  after  the  shrimps,  but  he  never  heeded 
them,  or  they  him;  and  once  he  passed  a  great  black 
shining  seal,  who  was  coming  in  after  the  mullet. 
The  seal  put  his  head  and  shoulders  out  of  water, 
and  stared  at  him,  looking  exactly  like  a  fat  old 
greasy  negro  with  a  gray  pate.  And  Tom,  instead  of 

[109] 


THE   WATER-BABIES 

being  frightened,  said, 
"  How  d'ye  do,  sir;  what 
a  beautiful  place  the  sea 
is!"  And  the  old  seal, 
instead  of  trying  to  bite 
him,  looked  at  him  with 
his  soft  sleepy  winking 
eyes,  and  said,  "  Good 
tide  to  you,  my  little 
man;  are  you  looking  for 
your  brothers  and  sis- 
ters? I  passed  them  all  at  play  outside." 

"  Oh,  then,"  said  Tom,  "  I  shall  have  playfellows 
at  last,"  and  he  swam  on  to  the  buoy,  and  got  upon 
it  (for  he  was  quite  out  of  breath)  and  sat  there, 
and  looked  round  for  water-babies:  but  there  were 
none  to  be  seen. 

The  sea-breeze  came  in  freshly  with  the  tide  and 
blew  the  fog  away;  and  the  little  waves  danced 
for  joy  around  the  buoy,  and  the  old  buoy  danced 
with  them.  The  shadows  of  the  clouds  ran  races 
over  the  bright  blue  bay,  and  yet  never  caught 
each  other  up;  and  the  breakers  plunged  merrily 
upon  the  wide  white  sands,  and  jumped  up  over 
the  rocks,  to  see  what  the  green  fields  inside  were 
like,  and  tumbled  down  and  broke  themselves  all 
[no] 


THE    WATER-BABIES 

to  pieces,  and  never  minded  it  a  bit,  but  mended 
themselves  and  jumped  up  again.  And  the  terns 
hovered  over  Tom  like  huge  white  dragon-flies  with 
black  heads,  and  the  gulls  laughed  like  girls  at  play, 
and  the  sea-pies,  with  their  red  bills  and  legs,  flew 
to  and  fro  from  shore  to  shore,  and  whistled  sweet 
and  wild.  And  Tom  looked  and  looked,  and  lis- 
tened; and  he  would  have  been  very  happy,  if  he 
could  only  have  seen  the  water-babies.  Then  when 
the  tide  turned,  he  left  the  buoy,  and  swam  round 
and  round  in  search  of  them:  but  in  vain.  Some- 
times he  thought  he  heard  them  laughing :  but  it  was 
only  the  laughter  of  the  ripples.  And  sometimes  he 
thought  he  saw  them  at  the  bottom :  but  it  was  only 
white  and  pink  shells.  And  once  he  was  sure  he 
had  found  one,  for  he  saw  two  bright  eyes  peeping 
out  of  the  sand.  So  he  dived  down,  and  began 
scraping  the  sand  away,  and  cried,  "  Don't  hide;  I 
do  want  some  one  to  play  with  so  much !  "  And  out 
jumped  a  great  turbot  with  his  ugly  eyes  and  mouth 
all  awry,  and  flopped  away  along  the  bottom,  knock- 
ing poor  Tom  over.  And  he  sat  down  at  the  bottom 
of  the  sea,  and  cried  salt  tears  from  sheer  disap- 
pointment. 

To  have  come  all  this  way,  and  faced  so  many 
dangers,   and  yet  to  find  no  water-babies!     How 

[ml 


THE   WATER-BABIES 

hard!  Well,  it  did  seem  hard:  but  people,  even 
little  babies,  cannot  have  all  they  want  without  wait- 
ing for  it,  and  working  for  it  too,  my  little  man,  as 
you  will  find  out  some  day. 

And  Tom  sat  upon  the  buoy  long  days,  long 
weeks,  looking  out  to  sea,  and  wondering  when  the 
water-babies  would  come  back;  and  yet  they  never 
came. 

Then  he  began  to  ask  all  the  strange  things  which 
came  in  out  of  the  sea  if  they  had  seen  any;  and 
some  said  "  Yes,"  and  some  said  nothing  at  all. 

He  asked  the  bass  and  the  pollock;  but  they  were 
so  greedy  after  the  shrimps  that  they  did  not  care 
to  answer  him  a  word. 

Then  there  came  in  a  whole  fleet  of  purple  sea- 
snails,  floating  along,  each  on  a  sponge  full  of  foam, 
and  Tom  said,  *'  Where  do  you  come  from,  you 
pretty  creatures?  and  have  you  seen  the  water- 
babies?" 

And  the  sea-snails  answered,  "  Whence  we  come 
we  know  not;  and  whither  we  are  going,  who  can 
tell?  We  float  out  our  life  in  the  mid-ocean,  wi*h 
the  warm  sunshine  above  our  heads,  and  the  warm 
gulf-stream  below;  and  that  is  enough  for  us.  Yes; 
perhaps  we  have  seen  the  water-babies.  We  have 
seen  many  strange  things  as  we  sailed  along."  And 
[112] 


THE    WATER-BABIES 

they  floated  away,  the  happy  stupid  things,  and  all 
went  ashore  upon  the  sands. 

Then  there  came  in  a  great  lazy  sunfish,  as  big  as 
a  fat  pig  cut  in  half;  and  he  seemed  to  have  been  cut 
in  half  too,  and  squeezed  in  a  clothes-press  till  he  was 
flat;  but  to  all  his  big  body  and  big  fins  he  had  only 
a  little  rabbit's  mouth,  no  bigger  than  Tom's;  and, 
when  Tom  questioned  him,  he  answered  in  a  little 
squeaky  feeble  voice: 

"  I'm  sure  I  don't  know;  I've  lost  my  way.  1 
meant  to  go  to  the  Chesapeake,  and  I'm  afraid  I've 
got  wrong  somehow.  Dear  me  !  it  was  all  by  follow- 
ing that  pleasant  warm  water.  I'm  sure  I've  lost 
my  way." 

And,  when  Tom  asked  him  again,  he  could  only 
answer,  "I've  lost  my  way.  Don't  talk  to  me;  I 
want  to  think." 

But,  like  a  good  many  other  people,  the  more  he 
tried  to  think  the  less  he  could  think;  and  Tom  saw 
him  blundering  about  all  day,  till  the  coast-guards' 
men  saw  his  big  fin  above  the  water,  and  rowed  out, 
and  struck  a  boat-hook  into  him,  and  took  him  away. 
They  took  him  up  to  the  town  and  showed  him  for 
a  penny  a  head,  and  made  a  good  day's  work  of  it. 
But  of  course  Torn  did  not  know  that. 

Then  there  came  by  a  shoal  of  porpoises,  rolling 

[113] 


THE   WATER- BABIES 

as  they  went — papas,  and  mammas,  and  little  chil- 
dren— and  all  quite  smooth  and  shiny,  because  the 
fairies  French-polish  them  every  morning;  and  they 
sighed  so  softly  as  they  came  by,  that  Tom  took 
courage  to  speak  to  them :  but  all  they  answered  was, 
"Hush,  hush,  hush;"  for  that  was  all  they  had 
learned  to  say. 

And  then  there  came  a  shoal  of  basking  sharks, 
some  of  them  as  long  as  a  boat,  and  Tom  was  fright- 
ened at  them.  But  they  were  very  lazy  good-natured 
fellows,  not  greedy  tyrants,  like  white  sharks  and 
blue  sharks  and  ground  sharks  and  hammer-heads, 
who  eat  men,  or  saw-fish  and  threshers  and  ice- 
sharks,  who  hunt  the  poor  old  whales.  They  came 
and  rubbed  their  great  sides  against  the  buoy,  and 
lay  basking  in  the  sun  with  their  backfins  out  of 
water;  and  winked  at  Tom:  but  he  never  could  get 
them  to  speak.  They  had  eaten  so  many  herrings 
that  they  were  quite  stupid;  and  Tom  was  glad  when 
a  collier  brig  came  by  and  frightened  them  all  away; 
for  they  did  smell  most  horribly,  certainly,  and  he 
had  to  hold  his  nose  tight  as  long  as  they  were 
there. 

And  then  there  came  by  a  beautiful  creature,  like 
a  ribbon  of  pure  silver  with  a  sharp  head  and  very 
long  teeth;  but  it  seemed  very  sick  and  sad.  Some- 


THE    WATER-BABIES 

times  it  rolled  helpless  on  its  side ;  and  then  it  dashed 
away  glittering  like  white  fire;  and  then  it  lay  sick 
again  and  motionless. 

"Where  do  you  come  from?"  asked  Tom. 
"  And  why  are  you  so  sick  and  sad?  " 

"  I  come  from  the  warm  Carolinas,  and  the  sand- 
banks fringed  with  pines;  where  the  great  owl-rays 
leap  and  flap,  like  giant  bats,  upon  the  tide.  But  I 
wandered  north  and  north,  upon  the  treacherous 
warm  gulf-stream,  till  I  met  with  the  cold  icebergs, 
afloat  in  the  mid  ocean.  So  I  got  tangled  among  the 
icebergs,  and  chilled  with  their  frozen  breath.  But 
the  water-babies  helped  me  from  among  them,  and 
set  me  free  again.  And  now  I  am  mending  every 
day;  but  I  am  very  sick  and  sad;  and  perhaps  I 
shall  never  get  home  again  to  play  with  the  owl-rays 
any  more." 

"  Oh!  "  cried  Tom.  "  And  you  have  seen  water- 
babies?  Have  you  seen  any  near  here?  " 

"  Yes;  they  helped  me  again  last  night,  or  I  should 
have  been  eaten  by  a  great  black  porpoise." 

How  vexatious!  The  water-babies  close  to  him, 
and  yet  he  could  not  find  one. 

And  then  he  left  the  buoy,  and  used  to  go  along 
the  sands  and  round  the  rocks,  and  come  out  in  the 
night — like  the  forsaken  Merman  in  Mr.  Arnold's 


THE    WATER-BABIES 

beautiful,  beautiful  poem,  which  you  must  learn  by 
heart  some  day — and  sit  upon  a  point  of  rock,  among 
the  shining  seaweeds,  in  the  low  October  tides,  and 
cry  and  call  for  the  water-babies;  but  he  never  heard 
a  voice  call  in  return.  And  at  last,  with  his  fretting 
and  crying,  he  grew  quite  lean  and  thin. 

But  one  day  among  the  rocks  he  found  a  play- 
fellow. It  was  not  a  water-baby,  alas !  but  it  was  a 
lobster;  and  a  very  distinguished  lobster  he  was;  for 
he  had  live  barnacles  on  his  claws,  which  is  a  great 
mark  of  distinction  in  lobsterdom,  and  no  more  to 
be  bought  for  money  than  a  good  conscience  or  the 
Victoria  Cross. 

Tom  had  never  seen  a  lobster  before;  and  he  was 
mightily  taken  with  this  one ;  for  he  thought  him  the 
most  curious,  odd,  ridiculous  creature  he  had  ever 
seen;  and  there  he  was  not  far  wrong;  for  all  the 
ingenious  men,  and  all  the  scientific  men,  and  all  the 
fanciful  men,  in  the  world,  with  all  the  old  German 
bogy-painters  into  the  bargain,  could  never  invent, 
if  all  their  wits  were  boiled  into  one,  anything  so 
curious,  and  so  ridiculous,  as  a  lobster. 

He  had  one  claw  knobbed  and  the  other  jagged; 

and  Tom  delighted  in  watching  him  hold  on  to  the 

seaweed  with  his  knobbed  claw,   while   he   cut  up 

salads  with  his  jagged  one,  and  then  put  them  into 

[116] 


THE    WATER-BABIES 

his  mouth,  after  smelling  at  them,  like  a  monkey. 
And  always  the  little  barnacles  threw  out  their  cast- 
ing-nets and  swept  the  water,  and  came  in  for  their 
share  of  whatever  there  was  for  dinner. 

But  Tom  was  most  astonished  to  see  how  he  fired 
himself  off — snap !  like  the  leap-frogs  which  you 
make  out  of  a  goose's  breast-bone.  Certainly  he  took 
the  most  wonderful  shots,  and  backwards,  too. 
For,  if  he  wanted  to  go  into  a  narrow  crack  ten 
yards  off,  what  do  you  think  he  did?  If  he  had  gone 
in  head  foremost,  of  course  he  could  not  have  turned 
round.  So  he  used  to  turn  his  tail  to  it,  and  lay  his 
long  horns,  which  carry  his  sixth  sense  in  their  tips 
(and  nobody  knows  what  that  sixth  sense  is), 
straight  down  his  back  to  guide  him,  and  twist  his 
eyes  back  till  they  almost  came  out  of  their  sockets, 
and  then  made  ready,  present,  fire,  snap ! — and  away 
he  went,  pop  into  the  hole ;  and  peeped  out  and  twid- 
dled his  whiskers,  as  much  as  to  say,  "  You  couldn't 
do  that." 

Tom  asked  him  about  water-babies.  "  Yes,"  he 
said.  He  had  seen  them  often.  But  he  did  not  think 
much  of  them.  They  were  meddlesome  little  crea- 
tures that  went  about  helping  fish  and  shells  which 
got  into  scrapes.  Well,  for  his  part,  he  should  be 
ashamed  to  be  helped  by  little  soft  creatures  that  had 

[117] 


THE   WATER-BABIES 

not  even  a  shell  on  their  backs.    He  had  lived  quite 
long  enough  in  the  world  to  take  care  of  himself. 

He  was  a  conceited  fellow,  the  old  lobster,  and  not 
very  civil  to  Tom;  and  you  will  hear  how  he  had  to 
alter  his  mind  before  he  was  done,  as  conceited 
people  generally  have.  But  he  was  so  funny,  and 
Tom  so  lonely,  that  he  could  not  quarrel  with  him; 
and  they  used  to  sit  in  holes  in  the  rocks,  and  chat 
for  hours. 

And  about  this  time  there  happened  to  Tom  a 
very  strange  and  important  adventure — so  impor- 
tant, indeed,  that  he  was  very  near  never  finding  the 
water-babies  at  all;  and  I  am  sure  you  would  have 
been  sorry  for  that. 

I  hope  that  you  have  not  forgotten  the  little  white 
lady  all  this  while.  At  least,  here  she  comes,  looking 
like  a  clean  white  good  little  darling,  as  she  always 
was,  and  always  will  be.  For  it  befell  in  the  pleas- 
ant short  December  days,  when  the  wind  always 
blows  from  the  south-west,  till  Old  Father  Christ- 
mas comes  and  spreads  the  great  white  table-cloth, 
ready  for  little  boys  and  girls  to  give  the  birds  their 
Christmas  dinner  of  crumbs — it  befell  (to  go  on)  in 
the  pleasant  December  days,  that  Sir  John  was  so 
busy  hunting  that  nobody  at  home  could  get  a  word 
out  of  him.  Four  days  a  week  he  hunted,  and  very 
[118] 


THE    WATER- BABIES 

good  sport  he  had;  and  the  other  two  he  went  to 
the  bench  and  the  board  of  guardians,  and  very  good 
justice  he  did. 

It  befell  (to  go  on  a  second  time)  that  Sir  John, 
hunting  all  day,  and  dining  at  five,  fell  asleep  every 
evening,  and  snored  so  terribly  that  all  the  windows 
in  Harthover  shook,  and  the  soot  fell  down  the  chim- 
neys. Whereon  My  Lady,  being  no  more  able  to  get 
conversation  out  of  him  than  a  song  out  of  a  dead 
nightingale,  determined  to  go  off  and  leave  him,  and 
the  doctor,  and  Captain  Swinger  the  agent,  to  snore 
in  concert  every  evening  to  their  hearts'  content.  So 
she  started  for  the  seaside  with  all  the  children,  in 
order  to  put  herself  and  them  into  condition  by  mild 
applications  of  iodine.  She  might  as  well  have 
stayed  at  home  and  used  Parry's  liquid  horse-blister, 
for  there  was  plenty  of  it  in  the  stables;  and  then 
she  would  have  saved  her  money,  and  saved  the 
chance,  also,  of  making  all  the  children  ill  instead  of 
well  (as  hundreds  are  made) ,  by  taking  them  to  some 
nasty  smelling  undrained  lodging,  and  then  wonder- 
ing how  they  caught  scarlatina  and  diphtheria :  but 
people  won't  be  wise  enough  to  understand  that  till 
they  are  dead  of  bad  smells,  and  then  it  will  be  too 
late;  besides,  you  see,  Sir  John  did  certainly  snore 
very  loud. 

[H9l 


THE   WATER-BABIES 

But  where  she  went  to  nobody  must  know,  for  fear 
young  ladies  should  begin  to  fancy  that  there  are 
water-babies  there !  and  so  hunt  and  howk  after  them 
(besides  raising  the  price  of  lodgings),  and  keep 
them  in  aquariums,  as  the  ladies  at  Pompeii  (as  you 


may  see  by  the  paintings)  used  to  keep  Cupids  in 
cages.  But  nobody  ever  heard  that  they  starved  the 
Cupids,  or  let  them  die  of  dirt  and  neglect,  as  Eng- 
lish young  ladies  do  by  the  poor  sea-beasts.  So  no- 
body must  know  where  My  Lady  went.  Letting 
water-babies  die  is  as  bad  as  taking  singing  birds' 
eggs;  for,  though  there  are  thousands,  ay,  millions, 
of  both  of  them  in  the  world,  yet  there  is  not  one 
too  many. 

New  it  befell  that,  on  the  very  shore,  and  over  the 

[  120} 


THE    WATER-BABIES 

very  rocks,  where  Tom  was  sitting  with  his  friend  the 
lobster,  there  walked  one  day  the  little  white  lady, 
Ellie  herself,  and  with  her  a  very  wise  man  indeed — 
Professor  Ptthmllnsprts. 

He  was,  as  I  said,  a  very  great  naturalist;  a  very 
worthy,  kind,  good-natured  little  old  gentleman;  and 
very  fond  of  children;  and  very  good  to  all  the  world 
as  long  as  it  was  good  to  him.  Only  one  fault  he 
had,  which  cock-robins  have  likewise,  as  you  may 
see  if  you  look  out  of  the  nursery  window — that, 
when  any  one  else  found  a  curious  worm,  he  would 
hop  round  them,  and  peck  them,  and  set  up  his  tail, 
and  bristle  up  his  feathers,  just  as  a  cock-robin 
would;  and  declare  that  he  found  the  worm  first; 
and  that  it  was  his  worm;  and,  if  not,  that  then  it  was 
not  a  worm  at  all. 

He  had  met  Sir  John  at  Scarborough,  or  Fleet- 
wood,  or  somewhere  or  other  (if  you  don't  care 
where,  nobody  else  does),  and  had  made  acquain- 
tance with  him,  and  become  very  fond  of  his 
children.  Now,  Sir  John  know  nothing  about  sea. 
cockyolybirds,  and  cared  less,  provided  the  fish- 
monger sent  him  good  fish  for  dinner;  and  My  Lady 
knew  as  little:  but  she  thought  it  proper  that  the 
children  should  know  something.  For  in  the  stupid 
old  times,  you  must  understand,  children  were  taught 

[121] 


THE   WATER-BABIES 

to  know  one  thing,  and  to  know  it  well;  but  in  these 
enlightened  new  times  they  are  taught  to  know  a 
little  about  everything,  and  to  know  it  all  ill;  which 
is  a  great  deal  pleasanter  and  easier,  and  therefore 
quite  right. 

So  Ellie  and  he  were  walking  on  the  rocks,  and 
he  was  showing  her  about  one  in  ten  thousand  of  all 
the  beautiful  and  curious  things  which  are  to  be  seen 
there.  But  little  Ellie  was  not  satisfied  with  them  at 
all.  She  liked  much  better  to  play  with  live  children, 
or  even  with  dolls,  which  she  could  pretend  were 
alive;  and  at  last  she  said  honestly,  UI  don't  care 
about  all  these  things,  because  they  can't  play  with 
me,  or  talk  to  me.  If  there  were  little  children  now 
in  the  water,  as  there  used  to  be,  and  I  could  see 
them,  I  should  like  that." 

"  Children  in  the  water,  you  strange  little  duck?  " 
said  the  professor. 

"  Yes,"  said  Ellie.  "  I  know  there  used  to  be 
children  in  the  water,  and  mermaids  too,  and  mer- 
men. I  saw  them  all  in  a  picture  at  home,  of  a 
beautiful  lady  sailing  in  a  car  drawn  by  dolphins,  and 
babies  flying  round  her,  and  one  sitting  in  her  lap; 
and  the  mermaids  swimming  and  playing,  and  the 
mermen  trumpeting  on  conch-shells ;  and  it  is  called 
*  The  Triumph  of  Galatea ; '  and  there  is  a  burning 
[122] 


THE    WATER- BABIES 

mountain  in  the  picture  behind.  It  hangs  on  the 
great  staircase,  and  I  have  looked  at  it  ever  since  I 
was  a  baby,  and  dreamt  about  it  a  hundred  times; 
and  it  is  so  beautiful  that  it  must  be  true." 

But  the  professor  had  not  the  least  notion  of  al- 
lowing that  things  were  true,  merely  because  people 
thought  them  beautiful. 

Now  little  Ellie  was,  I  suppose,  a  stupid  little 
girl;  for  she  only  asked  the  same  question  over  again. 

"  But  why  are  there  not  water-babies?  " 

I  trust  and  hope  that  it  was  because  the  professor 
trod  at  that  moment  on  the  edge  of  a  very  sharp 
mussel,  and  hurt  one  of  his  corns  sadly,  that  he  an- 
swered quite  sharply,  forgetting  that  he  was  a  scienti- 
fic man,  and  therefore  ought  to  have  known  that  he 
couldn't  know;  and  that  he  was  a  logician,  and  there- 
fore ought  to  have  known  that  he  could  not  prove  a 
universal  negative — I  say,  I  trust  and  hope  it  was 
because  the  mussel  hurt  his  corn,  that  the  professor 
answered  quite  sharply: 

"  Because  there  ain't." 

Which  was  not  even  good  English,  my  dear  little 
boy;  for,  as  you  must  know,  the  professor  ought  to 
have  said,  if  he  was  so  angry  as  to  say  anything  of 
the  kind — Because  there  are  not:  or  are  none :  or  are 
none  of  them;  or  because  they  do  not  exist. 

[  123] 


THE    WATER-BABIES 

And  he  groped  with  his  net  under  the  weeds  so 
violently,  that,  as  it  befell,  he  caught  poor  little  Tom. 
He  felt  the  net  very  heavy;  and  lifted  it  out  quickly, 
with  Tom  all  entangled  in  the  meshes. 

"  Dear  me  !  "  he  cried.  "  What  a  large  pink  Holo- 
thurian ;  with  hands,  too !  It  must  be  connected  with 
Synapta." 

And  he  took  him  out. 

"  It  has  actually  eyes !  "  he  cried.  "  Why,  it 
must  be  a  Cephalopod!  This  is  most  extraordi- 
nary!" 

"  No,  I  ain't!  "  cried  Tom,  as  loud  as  he  could; 
for  he  did  not  like  to  be  called  bad  names. 

"  It  is  a  water-baby!  "  cried  Ellie;  and  of  course 
it  was. 

"Water-fiddlesticks,  my  dear!"  said  the  profes- 
sor; and  he  turned  away  sharply. 

There  was  no  denying  it.  It  was  a  water-baby: 
and  he  had  said  a  moment  ago  that  there  were  none. 
What  was  he  to  do? 

He  would  have  liked,  of  course,  to  have  taken 
Tom  home  in  a  bucket.  He  would  not  have  put  him 
in  spirits.  Of  course  not.  He  would  have  kept  him 
alive,  and  petted  him  (for  he  was  a  very  kind  old 
gentleman) ,  and  written  a  book  about  him,  and  given 
him  two  long  names,  of  which  the  first  would  have 

[124] 


THE    WATER- BABIES 

said  a  little  about  Tom,  and  the  second  all  about 
himself. 

There  was  a  wise  old  heathen  once,  who  said, 
"  Maxima  debetur  pueris  reverentia  "• — The  great- 
est reverence  is  due  to  children;  that  is,  that  grown 
people  should  never  say  or  do  anything  wrong  be- 
fore children,  lest  they  should  set  them  a  bad  ex- 
ample.— But  some  people,  and  I  am  afraid  the  pro- 
fessor was  one  of  them,  interpret  that  in  a  strange, 
curious,  one-sided,  left-handed,  topsy-turvy,  inside- 
out-behind-before  fashion;  for  they  make  it  mean, 
that  you  must  show  your  respect  for  children,  by 
never  confessing  yourself  in  the  wrong  to  them,  even 
if  you  know  that  you  are  so,  lest  they  should  lose 
confidence  in  their  elders. 

Now,  if  the  professor  had  said  to  Ellie,  "  Yes,  my 
darling,  it  is  a  water-baby,  and  a  very  wonderful 
thing  it  is;  and  it  shows  how  little  I  know  of  the 
wonders  of  nature,  in  spite  of  forty  years'  honest 
labour.  I  was  just  telling  you  that  there  could  be  no 
such  creatures;  and,  behold!  here  is  one  come  to  con- 
found my  conceit  and  show  me  that  Nature  can  do, 
and  has  done,  beyond  all  that  man's  poor  fancy  can 
imagine.  So,  let  us  thank  the  Maker,  and  Inspirer, 
and  Lord  of  Nature  for  all  His  wonderful  and 
glorious  works,  and  try  and  find  out  something  about 


THE   WATER-BABIES 

this  one;  " — I  think  that,  if  the  professor  had  said 
that,  little  Ellie  would  have  believed  him  more 
firmly,  and  respected  him  more  deeply,  and  loved 
him  better,  than  ever  she  had  done  before.  But  he 


was  of  a  different  opinion.  He  hesitated  a  moment. 
He  longed  to  keep  Tom,  and  yet  he  half  wished  he 
never  had  caught  him;  and  at  last  he  quite  longed  to 
get  rid  of  him.  So  he  turned  away  and  poked  Tom 
with  his  finger,  for  want  of  anything  better  to  do; 
and  said  carelessly,  "  My  dear  little  maid,  you  must 
have  dreamt  of  water-babies  last  night,  your  head 
is  so  full  of  them."  Now  Tom  had  been  in  the  most 
horrible  and  unspeakable  fright  all  the  while;  and 
had  kept  as  quiet  as  he  could,  though  he  was  called 
a  Holothurian  and  a  Cephalopod;  for  it  was  fixed 
in  his  little  head  that  if  a  man  with  clothes  on  caught 
him,  he  might  put  clothes  on  him  too,  and  make  a 
dirty  black  chimney-sweep  of  him  again.  But,  when 
[126] 


THE    WATER-BABIES 

the  professor  poked  him,  it  was  more  than  he  could 
bear;  and,  between  fright  and  rage,  he  turned  to 
bay  as  valiantly  as  a  mouse  in  a  corner,  and  bit  the 
professor's  finger  till  it  bled. 

"Oh!  ah!  yah!  "  cried  he;  and  glad  of  an  excuse 
to  be  rid  of  Tom,  dropped  him  on  to  the  seaweed, 
and  thence  he  dived  into  the  water  and  was  gone  in 
a  moment. 

"  But  it  was  a  water-baby,  and  I  heard  it  speak!  " 
cried  Ellie.  "  Ah,  it  is  gone !  "  And  she  jumped 
down  off  the  rock  to  try  and  catch  Tom  before  he 
slipped  into  the  sea. 

Too  late !  and  what  was  worse,  as  she  sprang 
down,  she  slipped,  and  fell  some  six  feet  with  her 
head  on  a  sharp  rock,  and  lay  quite  still. 

The  professor  picked  her  up,  and  tried  to  waken 
her,  and  called  to  her,  and  cried  over  her,  for  he 
loved  her  very  much :  but  she  would  not  waken  at  all. 
So  he  took  her  up  in  his  arms  and  carried  her  to  her 
governess,  and  they  all  went  home;  and  little  Ellie 
was  put  to  bed,  and  lay  there  quite  still;  only  now 
and  then  she  woke  up  and  called  out  about  the  water- 
baby:  but  no  one  knew  what  she  meant,  and  the 
professor  did  not  tell,  for  he  was  ashamed  to  tell. 

And,  after  a  week,  one  moonlight  night,  the  fairies 
came  flying  in  at  the  window  and  brought  her  such  a 

[  127  1 


THE   WATER-BABIES 

pretty  pair  of  wings  that  she  could  not  help  putting 
them  on;  and  she  flew  with  them  out  of  the  window, 
and  over  the  land,  and  over  the  sea,  and  up  through 
the  clouds,  and  nobody  heard  or  saw  anything  of  her 
for  a  very  long  while. 


*8  J 


CHAPTER  V 

BUT  what  became  of  little  Tom? 
He  slipped  away  off  the  rocks  into  the 
water,  as  I  said  before.  But  he  could  not 
help  thinking  of  little  Ellie.  He  did  not  remember 
who  she  was ;  but  he  knew  that  she  was  a  little  girl, 
though  she  was  a  hundred  times  as  big  as  he.  That 
is  not  surprising:  size  has  nothing  to  do  with  kindred. 
A  tiny  weed  may  be  first  cousin  to  a  great  tree;  and 
a  little  dog  like  Vick  knows  that  Lioness  is  a  dog 
too,  though  she  is  twenty  times  larger  than  herself. 
So  Tom  knew  that  Ellie  was  a  little  girl,  and  thought 
about  her  all  that  day,  and  longed  to  have  had  her 
to  play  with;  but  he  had  very  soon  to  think  of  some- 
thing else.  And  here  is  the  account  of  what  hap- 
pened to  him,  as  it  was  published  next  morning  in 
the  Waterproof  Gazette,  on  the  finest  watered  paper, 

[  129] 


THE   WATER-BABIES 

for  the  use  of  the  great  fairy,  Mrs.  Bedonebyasyou- 
did,  who  reads  the  news  very  carefully  every  morn- 
ing, and  especially  the  police  cases,  as  you  will  hear 
very  soon. 

He  was  going  along  the  rocks  in  three-fathom 
water,  watching  the  pollock  catch  prawns,  and  the 
wrasses  nibble  barnacles  off  the  rocks,  shells  and  all, 
when  he  saw  a  round  cage  of  green  withes;  and  in- 
side it,  looking  very  much  ashamed  of  himself,  sat 
his  friend  the  lobster,  twiddling  his  horns,  instead  of 
thumbs. 

"  What,  have  you  been  naughty,  and  have  they 
put  you  in  the  lock-up?  "  asked  Tom. 

The  lobster  felt  a  little  indignant  at  such  a  notion, 
but  he  was  too  much  depressed  in  spirits  to  argue ;  so 
he  only  said,  "  I  can't  get  out." 

"Why  did  you  get  in?" 

"  After  that  nasty  piece  of  dead  fish."  He  had 
thought  it  looked  and  smelt  very  nice  when  he  was 
outside,  and  so  it  did,  for  a  lobster:  but  now  he 
turned  round  and  abused  it  because  he  was  angry 
with  himself. 

"  Where  did  you  get  in?  " 

11  Through  that  round  hole  at  the  top." 

*  Then  why  don't  you  get  out  through  it?  " 

"  Because  I  can't: "  and  the  lobster  twiddled  his 
[130] 


THE    WATER-BABIES 

horns  more  fiercely  than  ever,  but  he  was  forced  to 
confess. 

"  I  have  jumped  upwards,  downwards,  backwards, 
and  sideways,  at  least  four  thousand  times;  and  I 
can't  get  out:  I  always  get  up  underneath  there,  and 
can't  find  the  hole." 

Tom  looked  at  the  trap,  and  having  more  wit  than 
the  lobster,  he  saw  plainly  enough  what  was  the 
matter;  as  you  may  if  you  will  look  at  a  lobster-pot. 

"  Stop  a  bit,"  said  Tom.  "  Turn  your  tail  up  to 
me,  and  I'll  pull  you  through  hind-foremost,  and 
then  you  won't  stick  in  the  spikes." 

But  the  lobster  was  so  stupid  and  clumsy  that  he 
couldn't  hit  the  hole. 

Tom  reached  and  clawed  down  the  hole  aftei 
him,  till  he  caught  hold  of  him ;  and  then,  as  was  to 
be  expected,  the  clumsy  lobster  pulled  him  in  head 
foremost. 

"  Hullo !  here  is  a  pretty  business,"  said  Tom. 
"  Now  take  your  great  claws,  and  break  the  points 
off  those  spikes,  and  then  we  shall  both  get  out 
easily." 

"  Dear  me,  I  never  thought  of  that,"  said  the 
lobster;  "  and  after  all  the  experience  of  life  that  I 
have  had!" 

You  see,  experience  is  of  very  little  good  unless  a 


THE   WATER-BABIES 

man,  or  a  lobster,  has  wit  enough  to  make  use  of  it. 
For  a  good  many  people,  like  old  Polonius,  have 
seen  all  the  world,  and  yet  remain  little  better  than 
children  after  all. 

But  they  had  not  got  half  the  spikes  away  when 
they  saw  a  great  dark  cloud  over  them :  and  lo,  and 
behold,  it  was  the  otter. 

How  she  did  grin  and  grin  when  she  saw  Tom. 
"  Yar!  "  said  she,  "you  little  meddlesome  wretch,  I 
have  you  now !  I  will  serve  you  out  for  telling  the 
salmon  where  I  was !  "  And  she  crawled  all  over 
the  pot  to  get  in. 

Tom  was  horribly  frightened,  and  still  more 
frightened  when  she  found  the  hole  in  the  top,  and 
squeezed  herself  right  down  through  it,  all  eyes  and 
teeth.  But  no  sooner  was  her  head  inside  than  val- 
iant Mr.  Lobster  caught  her  by  the  nose  and  held  on. 

And  there  they  were  all  three  in  the  pot,  rolling 
over  and  over,  and  very  tight  packing  it  was.  And 
the  lobster  tore  at  the  otter,  and  the  otter  tore  at  the 
lobster,  and  both  squeezed  and  thumped  poor  Tom 
till  he  had  no  breath  left  in  his  body;  and  I  don't 
know  what  would  have  happened  to  him  if  he  had 
not  at  last  got  on  the  otter's  back,  and  safe  out  of 
the  hole. 

He  was  right  glad  when  he  got  out :  but  he  would 

[  132] 


THE    WATER-BABIES 

not  desert  his  friend  who  had  saved  him;  and  the 
first  time  he  saw  his  tail  uppermost  he  caught  hold 
of  it,  and  pulled  with  all  his  might. 

But  the  lobster  would  not  let  go. 

"  Come  along,"  said  Tom;  "  don't  you  see  she  is 
dead?  "  And  so  she  was,  quite  drowned  and  dead. 

And  that  was  the  end  of  the  wicked  otter. 

But  the  lobster  would  not  let  go. 

"  Come  along,  you  stupid  old  stick-in-the-mud," 
cried  Tom,  "  or  the  fisherman  will  catch  you !  "  And 
that  was  true,  for  Tom  felt  some  one  above  begin- 
ning to  haul  up  the  pot. 

But  the  lobster  would  not  let  go. 

Tom  saw  the  fisherman  haul  him  up  to  the  boat- 
side,  and  thought  it  was  all  up  with  him.  But  when 
Mr.  Lobster  saw  the  fisherman,  he  gave  such  a  furi- 
ous and  tremendous  snap,  that  he  snapped  out  of  his 
hand,  and  out  of  the  pot,  and  safe  into  the  sea.  But 
he  left  his  knobbed  claw  behind  him;  for  it  never 
came  into  his  stupid  head  to  let  go  after  all,  so  he 
just  shook  his  claw  off  as  the  easier  method. 

Tom  asked  the  lobster  why  he  never  thought  of 
letting  go.  He  said  very  determinedly  that  it  was  a 
point  of  honour  among  lobsters.  And  so  it  is,  as  the 
Mayor  of  Plymouth  found  out  once  to  his  cost — 
eight  or  nine  hundred  years  ago,  of  course;  for  if 

[  133] 


THE   WATER-BABIES 

it  had  happened  lately  it  would  be  personal  to  men- 
tion it. 

For  one  day  he  was  so  tired  with  sitting  on  a  hard 
chair,  in  a  grand  furred  gown,  with  a  gold  chain 
round  his  neck,  hearing  one  policeman  after  another 
come  in  and  sing,  "  What  shall  we  do  with  the 
drunken  sailor,  so  early  in  the  morning?"  and  an- 
swering them  each  exactly  alike : 

"  Put  him  in  the  round  house  till  he  gets  sober, 
so  early  in  the  morning" — 

That,  when  it  was  over,  he  jumped  up,  and  played 
leap-frog  with  the  town-clerk  till  he  burst  his  but- 
tons, and  then  had  his  luncheon,  and  burst  some 
more  buttons,  and  then  said :  "  It  is  a  low  spring- 
tide ;  I  shall  go  out  this  afternoon  and  cut  my  capers." 

Now  he  did  not  mean  to  cut  such  capers  as  you 
eat  with  boiled  mutton.  It  was  the  commandant  of 
artillery  at  Valetta  who  used  to  amuse  himself  with 
cutting  them,  and  who  stuck  upon  one  of  the  bas- 
tions a  notice,  "  No  one  allowed  to  cut  capers  here 
but  me,"  which  greatly  edified  the  midshipmen  in 
port,  and  the  Maltese  on  the  Nix  Mangiare  stairs. 
But  all  that  the  mayor  meant  was  that  he  would  go 
and  have  an  afternoon's  fun,  like  any  schoolboy,  and 
catch  lobsters  with  an  iron  hook. 

So  to  the  Mewstone  he  went,  and  for  lobsters  he 

II341 


THE    WATER-BABIES 

looked.  And  when  he  came  to  a  certain  crack  in  the 
rocks  he  was  so  excited  that,  instead  of  putting  in  his 
hook,  he  put  in  his  hand;  and  Mr.  Lobster  was  at 
home,  and  caught  him  by  the  finger,  and  held  on. 

"  Yah !  "  said  the  mayor,  and  pulled  as  hard  as 
he  dared :  but  the  more  he  pulled,  the  more  the  lob- 
ster pinched,  till  he  was  forced  to  be  quiet. 

Then  he  tried  to  get  his  hook  in  with  his  other 
hand;  but  the  hole  was  too  narrow. 

Then  he  pulled  again;  but  he  could  not  stand  the 
pain. 

Then  he  shouted  and  bawled  for  help :  but  there 
was  no  one  nearer  him  than  the  men-of-war  inside 
the  breakwater. 

Then  he  began  to  turn  a  little  pale;  for  the  tide 
flowed,  and  still  the  lobster  held  on. 

Then  he  turned  quite  white;  for  the  tide  was  up  to 
his  knees,  and  still  the  lobster  held  on. 

Then  he  thought  of  cutting  off  his  finger;  but  he 
wanted  two  things  to  do  it  with — courage  and  a 
knife;  and  he  had  got  neither. 

Then  he  turned  quite  yellow;  for  the  tide  was  up 
to  his  waist,  and  still  the  lobster  held  on. 

Then  he  thought  over  all  the  naughty  things  ht 
ever  had  done;  all  the  sand  which  he  had  put  in  the 
sugar,  and  the  sloe-leaves  in  the  tea,  and  the  water  in 

[135] 


THE   WATER-BABIES 

the  treacle,  and  the  salt  in  the  tobacco  (because  his 
brother  was  a  brewer,  and  a  man  must  help  his  own 
kin). 

Then  he  turned  quite  blue ;  for  the  tide  was  up  to 
his  breast,  and  still  the  lobster  held  on. 

Then,  I  have  no  doubt,  he  repented  fully  of  all  the 
said  naughty  things  which  he  had  done,  and  promised 
to  mend  his  life,  as  too  many  do  when  they  think 
they  have  no  life  left  to  mend.  Whereby,  as  they 
fancy,  they  make  a  very  cheap  bargain.  But  the  old 
fairy  with  the  birch  rod  soon  undeceives  them. 

And  then  he  grew  all  colours  at  once,  and  turned 
up  his  eyes  like  a  duck  in  thunder;  for  the  water  was 
up  to  his  chin,  and  still  the  lobster  held  on. 

And  then  came  a  man-of-war's  boat  round  the 
Mewstone,  and  saw  his  head  sticking  up  out  of  the 
water.  One  said  it  was  a  keg  of  brandy,  and  another 
that  it  was  a  cocoanut,  and  another  that  it  was  a 
buoy  loose,  and  another  that  it  was  a  black  diver, 
and  wanted  to  fire  at  it,  which  would  not  have  been 
pleasant  for  the  mayor :  but  just  then  such  a  yell  came 
out  of  a  great  hole  in  the  middle  of  it  that  the  mid- 
shipman in  charge  guessed  what  it  was,  and  bade 
pull  up  to  it  as  fast  as  they  could.  So  somehow  or 
other  the  Jacktars  got  the  lobster  out,  and  set  the 
mayor  free,  and  put  him  ashore  at  the  Barbican. 

[136] 


THE    WATER-BABIES 

He  never  went  lobster-catching  again;  and  we  will 
hope  he  put  no  more  salt  in  the  tobacco,  not  even  to 
sell  his  brother's  beer. 

And  that  is  the  story  of  the  Mayor  of  Plymouth, 
which  has  two  advantages — first,  that  of  being  quite 


true;  and  second,  that  of  having  (as  folks  say  all 
good  stories  ought  to  have)  no  moral  whatsoever: 
no  more,  indeed,  has  any  part  of  this  book,  because 
it  is  a  fairy  tale,  you  know. 

And  now  happened  to  Tom  a  most  wonderful 
thing;  for  he  had  not  left  the  lobster  five  minutes 
before  he  came  upon  a  water-baby. 

A  real  live  water-baby,  sitting  on  the  white  sand, 
very  busy  about  a  little  point  of  rock.  And  when  it 
saw  Tom  it  looked  up  for  a  moment,  and  then  cried, 
"  Why,  you  are  not  one  of  us.  You  are  a  new  baby  1 
Oh,  how  delightful!" 

[  137] 


THE    WATER-BABIES 

And  it  ran  to  Tom,  and  Tom  ran  to  it,  and  they 
hugged  and  kissed  each  other  for  ever  so  long,  they 
did  not  know  why.  But  they  did  not  want  any  intro- 
ductions there  under  the  water. 

At  last  Tom  said,  "  Oh,  where  have  you  been  all 
this  while  ?  I  have  been  looking  for  you  so  long,  and 
I  have  been  so  lonely." 

"  We  have  been  here  for  days  and  days.  There 
are  hundreds  of  us  about  the  rocks.  How  was  it  you 
did  not  see  us,  or  hear  us  when  we  sing  and  romp 
every  evening  before  we  go  home?  " 

Tom  looked  at  the  baby  again,  and  then  he 
said: 

"  Well,  this  is  wonderful !  I  have  seen  things 
just  like  you  again  and  again,  but  I  thought  you  were 
shells,  or  sea-creatures.  I  never  took  you  for  water- 
babies  like  myself." 

Now,  was  not  that  very  odd?  So  odd,  indeed, 
that  you  will,  no  doubt,  want  to  know  how  it  hap- 
pened, and  why  Tom  could  never  find  a  water-baby 
till  after  he  had  got  the  lobster  out  of  the  pot.  And, 
if  you  will  read  this  story  nine  times  over,  and  then 
think  for  yourself,  you  will  find  out  why.  It  is  not 
good  for  little  boys  to  be  told  everything,  and  never 
to  be  forced  to  use  their  own  wits. 

"  Now,"  said  the  baby,  "  come  and  help  me,  or  I 
[138] 


THE    WATER-BABIES 

shall  not  have  finished  before  my  brothers  and  sisters 
come,  and  it  is  time  to  go  home." 

"  What  shall  I  help  you  at?  " 

"At  this  poor  dear  little  rock;  a  great  clumsy 
boulder  came  rolling  by  in  the  last  storm,  and 
knocked  all  its  head  off,  and  rubbed  off  all  its  flow- 
ers. And  now  I  must  plant  it  again  with  seaweeds, 
and  coralline,  and  anemones,  and  I  will  make  it  the 
prettiest  little  rock-garden  on  all  the  shore." 

So  they  worked  away  at  the  rock,  and  planted  it, 
and  smoothed  the  sand  down  round  it,  and  capital 
fun  they  had  till  the  tide  began  to  turn.  And  then 
Tom  heard  all  the  other  babies  coming,  laughing 
and  singing  and  shouting  and  romping;  and  the  noise 
they  made  was  just  like  the  noise  of  the  ripple.  So 
he  knew  that  he  had  been  hearing  and  seeing  the 
water-babies  all  along;  only  he  did  not  know  them, 
because  his  eyes  and  ears  were  not  opened. 

And  in  they  came,  dozens  and  dozens  of  them, 
some  bigger  than  Tom  and  some  smaller,  all  in  the 
neatest  little  white  bathing  dresses;  and  when  they 
found  that  he  was  a  new  baby,  they  hugged  him  and 
kissed  him,  and  then  put  him  in  the  middle  and 
danced  round  him  on  the  sand,  and  there  was  no  one 
ever  so  happy  as  poor  little  Tom. 

"  Now  then,"  they  cried  all  at  once,  "  we  must 

[  1393 


THE    WATER-BABIES 

come  away  home,  we  must  come  away  home,  or  the 
tide  will  leave  us  dry.  We  have  mended  all  the 
broken  seaweed,  and  put  all  the  rock-pools  in  order, 
and  planted  all  the  shells  again  in  the  sand,  and  no- 
body will  see  where  the  ugly  storm  swept  in  last 
week." 

And  this  is  the  reason  why  the  rock-pools  are 
always  so  neat  and  clean;  because  the  water-babies 
come  inshore  after  every  storm  to  sweep  them  out, 
and  comb  them  down,  and  put  them  all  to  rights 
again. 

Only  where  men  are  wasteful  and  dirty,  and  let 
sewers  run  into  the  sea  instead  of  putting  the  stuff 
upon  the  fields  like  thrifty  reasonable  souls;  or  throw 
herrings'  heads  and  dead  dog-fish,  or  any  other  ref- 
use, into  the  water;  or  in  any  way  make  a  mess 
upon  the  clean  shore — there  the  water-babies  will 
not  come,  sometimes  not  for  hundreds  of  years  (for 
they  cannot  abide  anything  smelly  or  foul),  but 
leave  the  sea-anemones  and  the  crabs  to  clear  away 
everything,  till  the  good  tidy  sea  has  covered  up  all 
the  dirt  in  soft  mud  and  clean  sand,  where  the  water- 
babies  can  plant  live  cockles  and  whelks  and  razor- 
shells  and  sea-cucumbers  and  golden-combs,  and 
make  a  pretty  live  garden  again,  after  man's  dirt  is 
cleared  away.  And  that,  I  suppose,  is  the  reason 
[140] 


THE    WATER-BABIES 

why  there  are  no  water-babies  at  any  watering-place 
which  I  have  ever  seen. 

And  where  is  the  home  of  the  water-babies?  In 
St.  Brandan's  fairy  isle. 

Did  you  never  hear  of  the  blessed  St.  Brandan, 
how  he  preached  to  the  wild  Irish  on  the  wild,  wild 
Kerry  coast,  he  and  five  other  hermits,  till  they  were 
weary  and  longed  to  rest?  For  the  wild  Irish  would 
not  listen  to  them,  or  come  to  confession  and  to  mass, 
but  liked  better  to  brew  potheen,  and  dance  the  pater 
o'pee,  and  knock  each  other  over  the  head  with 
shillelaghs,  and  shoot  each  other  from  behind  turf- 
dykes,  and  steal  each  other's  cattle,  and  burn  each 
other's  homes;  till  St.  Brandan  and  his  friends  were 
weary  of  them,  for  they  would  not  learn  to  be  peace- 
able Christians  at  all. 

So  St.  Brandan  went  out  to  the  point  of  Old  Dun- 
more,  and  looked  over  the  tide-way  roaring  round 
the  Blasquets,  at  the  end  of  all  the  world,  and  away 
into  the  ocean,  and  sighed — "  Ah  that  I  had  wings 
as  a  dove !  "  And  far  away,  before  the  setting  sun, 
he  saw  a  blue  fairy  sea,  and  golden  fairy  islands,  and 
he  said,  "  Those  are  the  islands  of  the  blest."  Then 
he  and  his  friends  got  into  a  hooker,  and  sailed  away 
and  away  to  the  westward,  and  were  never  heard  of 
more.  But  the  people  who  would  not  hear  him  were 

[Hi] 


THE    WATER-BABIES 


changed  into  gorillas, 
and  gorillas  they  are 
until  this  day. 

And  when  St.  Brandan 
and  the  hermits  came  to 
that  fairy  isle  they  found 
it  overgrown  with  cedars 
and  full  of  beautiful 
birds;  and  he  sat  down 
under  the  cedars  and 
preached  to  all  the  birds 
in  the  air.  And  they 

liked  his  sermons  so  well  that  they  told  the  fishes 
in  the  sea;  and  they  came,  and  St.  Brandan  preached 
to  them;  and  the  fishes  told  the  water-babies, 
who  live  in  the  caves  under  the  isle;  and  they 
came  up  by  hundreds  every  Sunday,  and  St.  Bran- 
dan  got  quite  a  neat  little  Sunday-school.  And  there 
he  taught  the  water-babies  for  a  great  many  hundred 
years,  till  his  eyes  grew  too  dim  to  see,  and  his  beard 
grew  so  long  that  he  dared  not  walk  for  fear  of 
treading  on  it,  and  then  he  might  have  tumbled 
down.  And  at  last  he  and  the  five  hermits  fell 
fast  asleep  under  the  cedar-shades,  and  there  they 
sleep  unto  this  day.  But  the  fairies  took  to  the 

[  142  ] 


THE    WATER-BABIES 

water-babies,  and  taught  them  their  lessons  them- 
selves. 

And  some  say  that  St.  Brandan  will  awake  and 
begin  to  teach  the  babies  once  more :  but  some  think 
that  he  will  sleep  on,  for  better  for  worse,  till  the 
coming  of  the  Cocqcigrues.  But,  on  still  clear  sum- 
mer evenings,  when  the  sun  sinks  down  into  the  sea, 
among  golden  cloud-capes  and  cloud-islands,  and 
locks  and  friths  of  azure  sky,  the  sailors  fancy  that 
they  see,  away  to  westward,  St.  Brandan's  fairy 
isle. 

But  whether  men  can  see  it  or  not,  St.  Brandan's 
Isle  once  actually  stood  there;  a  great  land  out  in 
the  ocean,  which  has  sunk  and  sunk  beneath  the 
waves.  Old  Plato  called  it  Atlantis,  and  told  strange 
tales  of  the  wise  men  who  lived  therein,  and  of  the 
wars  they  fought  in  the  old  times.  And  from  off 
that  island  came  strange  flowers,  which  linger  still 
about  this  land: — the  Cornish  heath,  and  Cornish 
moneywort,  and  the  delicate  Venus's  hair,  and  the 
London-pride  which  covers  the  Kerry  mountains, 
and  the  little  pink  butterwort  of  Devon,  and  the 
great  blue  butterwort  of  Ireland,  and  the  Conne- 
mara  heath,  and  the  bristle-fern  of  the  Turk  water- 
fall, and  many  a  strange  plant  more ;  all  fairy  tokens 

[143] 


THE    WATER- BABIES 

left  for  wise  men  and  good  children  from  off  St. 
Brandan's  Isle. 

Now  when  Tom  got  there,  he  found  that  the  isle 
stood  all  on  pillars,  and  that  its  roots  were  full  of 
caves.  There  were  pillars  of  black  basalt,  like 
Staffa;  and  pillars  of  green  and  crimson  serpentine, 
like  Kynance;  and  pillars  ribboned  with  red  and 
white  and  yellow  sandstone,  like  Livermead;  and 
there  were  blue  grottoes  like  Capri,  and  white  grot- 
toes like  Adelsberg;  all  curtained  and  draped  with 
seaweeds,  purple  and  crimson,  green  and  brown;  and 
strewn  with  soft  white  sand,  on  which  the  water- 
babies  sleep  every  night.  But,  to  keep  the  place 
clean  and  sweet,  the  crabs  picked  up  all  the  scraps 
off  the  floor  and  ate  them  like  so  many  monkeys; 
while  the  rocks  were  covered  with  ten  thousand  sea- 
anemones,  and  corals  and  madrepores,  who  sca- 
venged the  water  all  day  long,  and  kept  it  nice  and 
pure.  But,  to  make  up  to  them  for  having  to  do 
such  nasty  work,  they  were  not  left  black  and  dirty, 
as  poor  chimney-sweeps  and  dustmen  are.  No;  the 
fairies  are  more  considerate  and  just  than  that,  and 
have  dressed  them  all  in  the  most  beautiful  colours 
and  patterns,  till  they  look  like  vast  flower-beds  of 
gay  blossoms.  If  you  think  I  am  talking  nonsense, 
I  can  only  say  that  it  is  true ;  and  that  an  old  gentle- 

[144] 


THE    WATER-BABIES 

man  named  Fourier  used  to  say  that  we  ought  to 
do  the  same  by  chimney-sweeps  and  dustmen,  and 
honour  them  instead  of  despising  them;  and  he  was 
a  very  clever  old  gentleman:  but,  unfortunately  for 
him  and  the  world,  as  mad  as  a  March  hare. 

And,  instead  of  watchmen  and  policemen  to  keep 
out  nasty  things  at  night,  there  were  thousands  and 
thousands  of  water-snakes,  and  most  wonderful  crea- 
tures they  were.  They  were  all  named  after  the 
Nereids,  the  sea-fairies  who  took  care  of  them,  Eu- 
nice and  Polynoe,  Phyllodoce  and  Psamathe,  and  all 
the  rest  of  the  pretty  darlings  who  swim  round  their 
Queen  Amphitrite,  and  her  car  of  cameo  shell. 
They  were  dressed  in  green  velvet,  and  black  velvet, 
and  purple  velvet;  and  were  all  jointed  in  rings;  and 
some  of  them  had  three  hundred  brains  apiece,  so 
that  they  must  have  been  uncommonly  shrewd  de- 
tectives; and  some  had  eyes  in  their  tails;  and  some 
had  eyes  in  every  joint,  so  that  they  kept  a  very 
sharp  look-out;  and  when  they  wanted  a  baby-snake, 
they  just  grew  one  at  the  end  of  their  own  tails,  and 
when  it  was  able  to  take  care  of  itself  it  dropped 
off;  so  that  they  brought  up  their  families  very 
cheaply.  But  if  any  nasty  thing  came  by,  out  they 
rushed  upon  it;  and  then  out  of  each  of  their  hun- 
dreds of  feet  there  sprang  a  whole  cutler's  shop  of 

[1451 


THE    WATER-BABIES 

Scythes,  Javelins, 

Billhooks,  Lances, 

Pickaxes,  Halberts, 

Forks,  Gisarines, 

Penknives,  Poleaxes, 

Rapiers,  Fishhooks, 

Sabres,  Bradawls, 

Yataghans,  Gimlets, 

Creeses,  Corkscrews, 

Ghoorka  swords,  Pins, 

Tucks,  Needles, 

And  so  forth 

which  stabbed,  shot,  poked,  pricked,  scratched, 
ripped,  pinked,  and  crimped  those  naughty  beasts 
so  terribly  that  they  had  to  run  for  their  lives,  or 
else  be  chopped  into  small  pieces  and  be  eaten  after- 
wards. And,  if  that  is  not  all,  every  word,  true, 
then  there  is  no  faith  in  microscopes,  and  all  is  over 
with  the  Linnaean  Society. 

And  there  were  the  water-babies  in  thousands, 
more  than  Tom,  or  you  either,  could  count. — All  the 
little  children  whom  the  good  fairies  take  to,  because 
their  cruel  mothers  and  fathers  will  not;  all  who  are 
untaught  and  brought  up  heathens,  and  all  who  come 
to  grief  by  ill-usage  or  ignorance  or  neglect;  all  the 
little  children  who  are  overlaid,  or  given  gin  when 
[146] 


THE    WATER-BABIES 

they  are  young,  or  are  let  to  drink  out  of  hot  kettles, 
or  to  fall  into  the  fire ;  all  the  little  children  in  alleys 
and  courts,  and  tumble-down  cottages,  who  die  by 
fever,  and  cholera,  and  measles,  and  scarlatina,  and 
nasty  complaints  which  no  one  has  any  business  to 
have,  and  which  no  one  will  have  some  day,  when 
folks  have  common  sense;  and  all  the  little  children 
who  have  been  killed  by  cruel  masters  and  wicked  sol- 
diers ;  they  were  all  there,  except,  of  course,  the  babes 
of  Bethlehem  who  were  killed  by  wicked  King 
Herod;  for  they  were  taken  straight  to  heaven  long 
ago,  as  everybody  knows,  and  we  call  them  the  Holy 
Innocents. 

But  I  wish  Tom  had  given  up  all  his  naughty 
tricks,  and  left  off  tormenting  dumb  animals  now 
that  he  had  plenty  of  playfellows  to  amuse  him.  In- 
stead of  that,  I  am  sorry  to  say,  he  would  meddle 
with  the  creatures,  all  but  the  water-snakes,  for  they 
would  stand  no  nonsense.  So  he  tickled  the  madre- 
pores, to  make  them  shut  up;  and  frightened  the 
crabs,  to  make  them  hide  in  the  sand  and  peep  out 
at  him  with  the  tips  of  their  eyes;  and  put  stones 
into  the  anemones'  mouths,  to  make  them  fancy  that 
their  dinner  was  coming. 

The  other  children  warned  him,  and  said,  "  Take 
care  what  you  are  at.  Mrs.  Bedonebyasyoudid  is  com- 

[147] 


THE   WATER-BABIES 

ing."  But  Tom  never  heeded  them,  being  quite  riot- 
ous with  high  spirits  and  good  luck,  till,  one  Friday 
morning  early,  Mrs.  Bedonebyasyoudid  came  indeed. 

A  very  tremendous  lady  she  was;  and  when  the 
children  saw  her  they  all  stood  in  a  row,  very  upright 
indeed,  and  smoothed  down  their  bathing  dresses, 
and  put  their  hands  behind  them,  just  as  if  they  were 
going  to  be  examined  by  the  inspector. 

And  she  had  on  a  black  bonnet,  and  a  black  shawl, 
and  no  crinoline  at  all;  and  a  pair  of  large  green 
spectacles,  and  a  great  hooked  nose,  hooked  so  much 
that  the  bridge  of  it  stood  quite  up  above  her  eye- 
brows; and  under  her  arm  she  carried  a  great  birch- 
rod.  Indeed,  she  was  so  ugly  that  Tom  was  tempted 
to  make  faces  at  her:  but  did  not;  for  he  did  not  ad- 
mire the  look  of  the  birch-rod  under  her  arm. 

And  she  looked  at  the  children  one  by  one,  and 
seemed  very  much  pleased  with  them,  though  she 
never  asked  them  one  question  about  how  they  were 
behaving;  and  then  began  giving  them  all  sorts  of 
nice  sea-things — sea-cakes,  sea-apples,  sea-oranges, 
sea-bullseyes,  sea-toffee;  and  to  the  very  best  of  all 
she  gave  sea-ices,  made  out  of  sea-cows'  cream,  which 
never  melt  under  water. 

And,  if  you  don't  quite  believe  me,  then  just  think 
1 — What  is  more  cheap  and  plentiful  than  sea-rock? 
[148] 


THE    WATER-BABIES 

Then  why  should  there  not  be  sea-toffee  as  well? 
And  every  one  can  find  sea-lemons  (ready  quartered 
too)  if  they  will  look  for  them  at  low  tide:  and 
sea-grapes  too  sometimes,  hanging  in  bunches;  and, 
if  you  will  go  to  Nice,  you  will  find  the  fish-market 
full  of  sea-fruit,  which  they  call  "  frutta  di  mare." 
And,  perhaps,  that  is  the  very  reason  why  the  place 
is  called  Nice,  because  there  are  so  many  nice  things 
in  the  sea  there :  at  least,  if  it  is  not,  it  ought  to  be. 

Now  little  Tom  watched  all  these  sweet  things 
given  away,  till  his  mouth  watered,  and  his  eyes 
grew  as  round  as  an  owl's.  For  he  hoped  that  his 
turn  would  come  at  last;  and  so  it  did.  For  the  lady 
called  him  up,  and  held  out  her  fingers  with  some- 
thing in  them,  and  popped  it  into  his  mouth;  and, 
lo  and  behold,  it  was  a  nasty  cold  hard  pebble. 

'  You  are  a  very  cruel  woman,"   said  he,   and 
began  to  whimper. 

"  And  you  are  a  very  cruel  boy;  who  puts  pebbles 
into  the  sea-anemones'  mouths,  to  take  them  in,  and 
make  them  fancy  that  they  had  caught  a  good  din- 
ner !  As  you  did  to  them,  so  I  must  do  to  you." 

"  Who  told  you  that?  "  said  Tom. 

"  You  did  yourself,  this  very  minute." 

Tom  had  never  opened  his  lips;  so  he  was  very 
much  taken  aback  indeed. 

[  149] 


THE   WATER-BABIES 

"Yes;  every  one  tells  me  exactly  what  they  have 
done  wrong;  and  that  without  knowing  it  them- 
selves. So  there  is  no  use  trying  to  hide  anything 
from  me.  Now  go,  and  be  a  good  boy,  and  I  will 
put  no  more  pebbles  in  your  mouth,  if  you  put  none 
in  other  creatures'." 

"  I  did  not  know  there  was  any  harm  in  it,"  said 
Tom. 

"  Then  you  know  now.  People  continually  say 
that  to  me :  but  I  tell  them,  if  you  don't  know  that 
fire  burns,  that  is  no  reason  that  it  should  not  burn 
you;  and  if  you  don't  know  that  dirt  breeds  fever, 
that  is  no  reason  why  the  fevers  should  not  kill  you. 
The  lobster  did  not  know  that  there  was  any  harm 
in  getting  into  the  lobster-pot;  but  it  caught  him  all 
the  same." 

"  Dear  me,"  thought  Tom,  "  she  knows  every- 
thing! "  And  so  she  did,  indeed. 

"  And  so,  if  you  do  not  know  that  things  are 
wrong,  that  is  no  reason  why  you  should  not  be 
punished  for  them;  though  not  as  much,  not  as  much, 
my  little  man"  (and  the  lady  looked  very  kindly, 
after  all),  "  as  if  you  did  know." 

14  Well,  you  are  a  little  hard  on  a  poor  lad,"  said 
Tom. 

"Not  at  all;  I  am  the  best  friend  you  ever  had 
[ISO] 


THE    WATER-BABIES 

in  all  your  life.  But  I  will  tell  you;  I  cannot  help 
punishing  people  when  they  do  wrong.  I  like  it  no 
more  than  they  do ;  I  am  often  very,  very  sorry  for 
them,  poor  things:  but  I  cannot  help  it.  If  I  tried 
not  to  do  it,  I  should  do  it  all  the  same.  For  I  work 


by  machinery,  just  like  an  engine;  and  am  full  of 
wheels  and  springs  inside;  and  am  wound  up  very 
carefully,  so  that  I  cannot  help  going." 

"Was  it  long  ago  since  they  wound  you  up?" 
asked  Tom.  For  he  thought,  the  cunning  little 
fellow,  "  She  will  run  down  some  day:  or  they  may 
forget  to  wind  her  up,  as  old  Grimes  used  to  forget 
to  wind  up  his  watch  when  he  came  in  from  the 
public-house;  and  then  I  shall  be  safe." 


THE   WATER-BABIES 

"  I  was  wound  up  once  and  for  all,  so  long  ago, 
that  I  forget  all  about  it." 

"  Dear  me,"  said  Tom,  "  you  must  have  been 
made  a  long  time !  " 

"  I  never  was  made,  my  child;  and  I  shall  go  for 
ever  and  ever;  for  I  am  as  old  as  Eternity,  and  yet 
as  young  as  Time." 

And  there  came  over  the  lady's  face  a  very  curi- 
ous expression — very  solemn,  and  very  sad;  and  yet 
very,  very  sweet.  And  she  looked  up  and  away,  as 
if  she  were  gazing  through  the  sea,  and  through  the 
sky,  at  something  far,  far  off;  and  as  she  did  so, 
there  came  such  a  quiet,  tender,  patient,  hopeful 
smile  over  her  face  that  Tom  thought  for  the  mo- 
ment that  she  did  not  look  ugly  at  all.  And  no  more 
she  did;  for  she  was  like  a  great  many  people  who 
have  not  a  pretty  feature  in  their  faces,  and  yet 
are  lovely  to  behold,  and  draw  little  children's  hearts 
to  them  at  once;  because  though  the  house  is  plain 
enough,  yet  from  the  windows  a  beautiful  and  good 
spirit  is  looking  forth. 

And  Tom  smiled  in  her  face,  she  looked  so  pleas- 
ant for  the  moment.  And  the  strange  fairy  smiled 
too  and  said : 

'  Yes.     You  thought  me  very  ugly  just  now,  did 
you  not?" 


THE    WATER-BABIES 

Tom  hung  down  his  head,  and  got  very  red  about 
the  ears. 

"  And  I  am  very  ugly.  I  am  the  ugliest  fairy  in 
the  world;  and  I  shall  be,  till  people  behave  them- 
selves as  they  ought  to  do.  And  then  I  shall  grow  as 
handsome  as  my  sister,  who  is  the  loveliest  fairy  in 
the  world;  and  her  name  is  Mrs.  Doasyouwouldbe- 
doneby.  So  she  begins  where  I  end,  and  I  begin 
where  she  ends ;  and  those  who  will  not  listen  to  her 
must  listen  to  me,  as  you  will  see.  Now,  all  of  you 
run  away,  except  Tom;  and  he  may  stay  and  see 
what  I  am  going  to  do.  It  will  be  a  very  good  warn- 
ing for  him  to  begin  with,  before  he  goes  to  school. 
"  Now,  Tom,  every  Friday  I  come  down  here  and 
call  up  all  who  have  ill-used  little  children  and  serve 
them  as  they  served  the  children." 

And  at  that  Tom  was  frightened,  and  crept  under 
a  stone;  which  made  the  two  crabs  who  lived  there 
very  angry,  and  frightened  their  friend  the  butter- 
fish  into  flapping  hysterics:  but  he  would  not  move 
for  them. 

And  first  she  called  up  all  the  doctors  who  give 
little  children  so  much  physic  (they  were  most  of 
them  old  ones;  for  the  young  ones  have  learnt  bet- 
ter, all  but  a  few  army  surgeons,  who  still  fancy 
that  a  baby's  inside  is  much  like  a  Scotch  grena- 

[153] 


THE   WATER-BABIES 

dier's),  and  she  set  them  all  in  a  row;  and  very  rue- 
ful they  looked;  for  they  knew  what  was  coming. 

And  first  she  pulled  all  their  teeth  out;  and  then 
she  bled  them  all  round:  and  then  she  dosed  them 
with  calomel,  and  jalap,  and  salts  and  senna,  and 
brimstone  and  treacle;  and  horrible  faces  they  made; 
and  then  she  gave  them  a  great  emetic  of  mustard 
and  water,  and  no  basons;  and  began  all  over  again; 
and  that  was  the  way  she  spent  the  morning. 

And  then  she  called  up  a  whole  troop  of  foolish 
ladies,  who  pinch  up  their  children's  waists  and  toes; 
and  she  laced  them  all  up  in  tight  stays,  so  that  they 
were  choked  and  sick,  and  their  noses  grew  red,  and 
their  hands  and  feet  swelled;  and  then  she  crammed 
their  poor  feet  into  the  most  dreadfully  tight  boots, 
and  made  them  all  dance,  which  they  did  most  clum- 
sily indeed;  and  then  she  asked  them  how  they  liked 
it;  and  when  they  said  not  at  all,  she  let  them  go: 
because  they  had  only  done  it  out  of  foolish  fashion, 
fancying  it  was  for  their  children's  good,  as  if  wasps' 
waists  and  pigs'  toes  could  be  pretty,  or  wholesome, 
or  of  any  use  to  anybody. 

Then  she  called  up  all  the  careless  nurserymaids, 
and  stuck  pins  into  them  all  over,  and  wheeled  them 
about  in  perambulators  with  tight  straps  across  their 
stomachs  and  their  heads  and  arms  hanging  over  the 

[154] 


THE    WATER-BABIES 

side,  till  they  were  quite  sick  and  stupid,  and  would 
have  had  sun-strokes:  but,  being  under  the  water, 
they  could  only  have  water-strokes;  which,  I  assure 
you,  are  nearly  as  bad,  as  you  will  find  if  you  try  to 
sit  under  a  mill-wheel.  And  mind — when  you  hear 
a  rumbling  at  the  bottom  of  the  sea,  sailors  will  tell 
you  that  it  is  a  ground-swell:  but  now  you  know 
better.  It  is  the  old  lady  wheeling  the  maids  about 
in  perambulators. 

And  by  that  time  she  was  so  tired,  she  had  to  go 
to  luncheon. 

And  after  luncheon  she  set  to  work  again,  and 
called  up  all  the  cruel  schoolmasters — whole  regi- 
ments and  brigades  of  them;  and  when  she  saw  them, 
she  frowned  most  terribly,  and  set  to  work  in  ear- 
nest, as  if  the  best  part  of  the  day's  work  was  to  come. 
More  than  half  of  them  were  nasty,  dirty,  frowzy, 
grubby,  smelly  old  monks,  who,  because  they  dare 
not  hit  a  man  of  their  own  size,  amused  themselves 
with  beating  little  children  instead;  as  you  may  see 
in  the  picture  of  old  Pope  Gregory  (good  man  and 
true  though  he  was,  when  he  meddled  with  things 
which  he  did  understand),  teaching  children  to  sing 
their  fa-fa-mi-fa  with  a  cat-o'-nine  tails  under  his 
chair:  but,  because  they  never  had  any  children  of 
their  own,  they  took  into  their  heads  (as  some  folks 

[1551 


THE   WATER-BABIES 

do  still)  that  they  were  the  only  people  in  the  world 
who  knew  how  to  manage  children:  and  they  first 
brought  into  England,  in  the  old  Anglo-Saxon  times, 
the  fashion  of  treating  free  boys,  and  girls  too, 
worse  than  you  would  treat  a  dog  or  a  horse:  but 
Mrs.  Bedonebyasyoudid  has  caught  them  all  long 
ago;  and  given  them  many  a  taste  of  their  own  rods; 
and  much  good  may  it  do  them. 

And  she  boxed  their  ears,  and  thumped  them  over 
the  head  with  rulers,  and  pandied  their  hands  with 
canes,  and  told  them  that  they  told  stories,  and  were 
this  and  that  bad  sort  of  people ;  and  the  more  they 
were  very  indignant,  and  stood  upon  their  honour, 
and  declared  they  told  the  truth,  the  more  she  de- 
clared they  were  not,  and  that  they  were  only  telling 
lies;  and  at  last  she  birched  them  all  round  soundly 
with  her  great  birch-rod  and  set  them  each  an  im- 
position of  three  hundred  thousand  lines  of  Hebrew 
to  learn  by  heart  before  she  came  back  next  Friday. 
And  at  that  they  all  cried  and  howled  so,  that  their 
breaths  came  all  up  through  the  sea  like  bubbles  out 
of  soda-water;  and  that  is  one  reason  of  the  bubbles 
in  the  sea.  There  are  others:  but  that  is  the  one 
which  principally  concerns  little  boys.  And  by  that 
time  she  was  so  tired  that  she  was  glad  to  stop ;  and, 
indeed,  she  had  done  a  very  good  day's  work. 

[156] 


THE    WATER-BABIES 


Tom  did  not  quite 
dislike  the  old  lady: 
but  he  could  not  help 
thinking  her  a  1  i  1 1 1  e 
spiteful — and  no  won- 
der if  she  was,  poor 
old  soul;  for  if  she  has 
to  wait  to  grow  hand- 
some till  people  do  as 
they  would  be  done 
by,  she  will  have  to 
wait  a  very  long  time. 

Poor  old  Mrs.  Bedonebyasyoudid!  she  has  a  great 
deal  of  hard  work  before  her,  and  had  better  have 
been  born  a  washerwoman,  and  stood  over  a  tub 
all  day:  but,  you  see,  people  cannot  always  choose 
their  own  profession. 

But  Tom  longed  to  ask  her  one  question;  and 
after  all,  whenever  she  looked  at  him,  she  did  not 
look  cross  at  all;  and  now  and  then  there  was  a 
funny  smile  in  her  face,  and  she  chuckled  to  herself 
in  a  way  which  gave  Tom  courage,  and  at  last  he 
said:  "  Pray,  ma'am,  may  I  ask  you  a  question?" 

"  Certainly,  my  little  dear." 

;<  Why  don't  you  bring  all  the  bad  masters  here 
and  serve  them  out  too?  The  butties  that  knock 

[IS7] 


THE    WATER- BABIES 

about  the  poor  collier-boys;  and  the  nailers  that  file 
off  their  lads'  noses  and  hammer  their  fingers;  and 
all  the  master  sweeps,  like  my  master  Grimes?  I 
saw  him  fall  into  the  water  long  ago;  so  I  surely 
expected  he  would  have  been  here.  I'm  sure  he 
was  bad  enough  to  me." 

Then  the  old  lady  looked  so  very  stern  that  Tom 
was  quite  frightened,  and  sorry  that  he  had  been  so 
bold.  But  she  was  not  angry  with  him.  She  only 
answered,  "  I  look  after  them  all  the  week  round; 
and  they  are  in  a  very  different  place  from  this,  be- 
cause they  knew  that  they  were  doing  wrong." 

She  spoke  very  quietly;  but  there  was  something 
in  her  voice  which  made  Tom  tingle  from  head  to 
foot,  as  if  he  had  got  into  a  shoal  of  sea-nettles. 

"  But  these  people,"  she  went  on,  "  did  not  know 
that  they  were  doing  wrong:  they  were  only  stupid 
and  impatient;  and  therefore  I  only  punish  them  till 
they  become  patient,  and  learn  to  use  their  common 
sense  like  reasonable  beings.  But  as  for  chimney- 
sweeps, and  collier-boys,  and  nailer  lads,  my  sister 
has  set  good  people  to  stop  all  that  sort  of  thing; 
and  very  much  obliged  to  her  I  am;  for  if  she  could 
only  stop  the  cruel  masters  from  ill-using  poor  chil- 
dren, I  should  grow  handsome  at  least  a  thousand 
years  sooner.  And  now  do  you  be  a  good  boy,  and 

[158] 


THE    WATER-BABIES 

do  as  you  would  be  done  by,  which  they  did  not; 
and  then,  when  my  sister,  Madame  Doasyouwould- 
bedoneby,  comes  on  Sunday,  perhaps  she  will  take 
notice  of  you,  and  teach  you  how  to-  behave.  She 
understands  that  better  than  I  do."  And  so  she 
went. 

Tom  was  very  glad  to  hear  that  there  was  no 
chance  of  meeting  Grimes  again,  though  he  was  a 
little  sorry  for  him,  considering  that  he  used  some- 
times to  give  him  the  leavings  of  the  beer:  but  he 
determined  to  be  a  very  good  boy  all  Saturday;  and 
he  was;  for  he  never  frightened  one  crab,  nor 
tickled  any  live  corals,  nor  put  stones  into  the  sea 
anemones'  mouths,  to  make  them  fancy  they  had  got 
a  dinner;  and  when  Sunday  morning  came,  sure 
enough,  Mrs.  Doasyouwouldbedoneby  came  too. 
Whereat  all  the  little  children  began  dancing  and 
clapping  their  hands,  and  Tom  danced  too  with  all 
his  might. 

And  as  for  the  pretty  lady,  I  cannot  tell  you  what 
the  colour  of  her  hair  was,  or  of  her  eyes:  no  more 
could  Tom ;  for,  when  any  one  looks  at  her,  all  they 
can  think  of  is,  that  she  has  the  sweetest,  kindest, 
tenderest,  funniest,  merriest  face  they  ever  saw,  or 
want  to  see.  But  Tom  saw  that  she  was  a  very  tall 
woman,  as  tall  as  her  sister:  but  instead  of  being 

[159] 


THE   WATER-BABIES 

gnarly  and  horny,  and  scaly,  and  prickly,  like  her,  she 
was  the  most  nice,  soft,  fat,  smooth,  pussy,  cuddly, 
delicious  creature  who  ever  nursed  a  baby;  and  she 
understood  babies  thoroughly,  for  she  had  plenty  of 
her  own,  whole  rows  and  regiments  of  them,  and  has 
to  this  day.  And  all  her  delight  was,  whenever  she 
had  a  spare  moment,  to  play  with  babies,  in  which 
she  showed  herself  a  woman  of  sense;  for  babies  are 
the  best  company,  and  the  pleasantest  playfellows, 
in  the  world;  at  least,  so  all  the  wise  people  in  the 
world  think.  And  therefore  when  the  children  saw 
her,  they  naturally  all  caught  hold  of  her,  and  pulled 
her  till  she  sat  down  on  a  stone,  and  climbed  into 
her  lap,  and  clung  round  her  neck,  and  caught  hold 
of  her  hands;  and  then  they  all  put  their  thumbs  into 
their  mouths,  and  began  cuddling  and  purring  like  so 
many  kittens,  as  they  ought  to  have  done.  While 
those  who  could  get  nowhere  else  sat  down  on  the 
sand,  and  cuddled  her  feet — for  no  one,  you  know, 
wears  shoes  in  the  water,  except  horrid  old  bathing- 
women,  who  are  afraid  of  the  water-babies  pinching 
their  horny  toes.  And  Tom  stood  staring  at  them; 
for  he  could  not  understand  what  it  was  all 
about. 

"And  who  are  you,  you  little  darling?"  she 
said 

[160] 


THE    WATER-BABIES 

"  Oh,  that  is  the  new  baby!  "  they  all  cried,  pull- 
ing their  thumbs  out  of  their  mouths;  "  and  he 
never  had  any  mother,"  and  they  all  put  their  thumbs 
back  again,  for  they  did  not  wish  to  lose  any  time. 

"  Then  I  will  be  his  mother,  and  he  shall  have  the 
very  best  place;  so  get  out,  all  of  you,  this  mo- 
ment." 

And  she  took  up  two  great  armfuls  of  babies — 
nine  hundred  under  one  arm,  and  thirteen  hundred 
under  the  other — and  threw  them  away,  right  and 
left,  into  the  water.  But  they  minded  it  no  more 
than  the  naughty  boys  in  Struwelpeter  minded  when 
St.  Nicholas  dipped  them  in  his  inkstand;  and  did 
not  even  take  their  thumbs  out  of  their  mouths,  but 
came  paddling  and  wriggling  back  to  her  like  so 
many  tadpoles,  till  you  could  see  nothing  of  her  from 
head  to  foot  for  the  swarm  of  little  babies. 

But  she  took  Tom  in  her  arms,  and  laid  him  in 
the  softest  place  of  all,  and  kissed  him,  and  patted 
him,  and  talked  to  him,  tenderly  and  low,  such  things 
as  he  had  never  heard  before  in  his  life;  and  Tom 
looked-up  into  her  eyes,  and  loved  her,  and  loved,  till 
he  fell  fast  asleep  from  pure  love. 

And  when  he  woke  she  was  telling  the  children 
a  story.  And  what  story  did  she  tell  them?  One 
story  she  told  them,  which  begins  every  Christmas 

[  161  ] 


THE    WATER-BABIES 

Eve,  and  yet  never  ends  at  all  for  ever  and  ever; 
and,  as  she  went  on,  the  children  took  their  thumbs 
out  of  their  mouths  and  listened  quite  seriously;  but 
not  sadly  at  all;  for  she  never  told  them  anything 
sad;  and  Tom  listened  too,  and  never  grew  tired  of 
listening.  And  he  listened  so  long  that  he  fell  fast 
asleep  again,  and,  when  he  woke,  the  lady  was 
nursing  him  still. 

"  Don't  go  away,"  said  little  Tom.  "  This  is  so 
nice.  I  never  had  any  one  to  cuddle  me  before." 

"  Don't  go  away,"  said  all  the  children ;  "  you 
have  not  sung  us  one  song." 

"  Well,  I  have  time  for  only  one.  So  what  shall 
it  be?" 

"  The  doll  you  lost!  The  doll  you  lost!  "  cried 
all  the  babies  at  once. 

So  the  strange  fairy  sang: — 

/  once  had  a  sweet  little  doll,  dears, 

The  prettiest  doll  in  the  world; 
Her  cheeks  were  so  red  and  so  white,  dears, 

And  her  hair  was  so  charmingly  curled. 
But  I  lost  my  poor  little  doll,  dears, 
As  I  played  in  the  heath  one  day: 
And  I  cried  for  her  more  than  a  week,  dears, 
But  I  never  could  find  where  she  lay. 
[162] 


THE    WATER- BABIES 

/  found  my  poor  little  doll,  dears, 

As  I  played  in  the  heath  one  day: 
Folks  say  she  is  terribly  changed,  dears, 

For  her  paint  is  all  washed  away, 
And  her  arm  trodden  of  by  the  cows,  dears, 

And  her  hair  not  the  least  bit  curled: 
Yet  for  old  sakes'  sake  she  is  still,  dears, 

The  prettiest  doll  in  the  world. 

What  a  silly  song  for  a  fairy  to  sing! 

And  what  silly  water-babies  to  be  quite  delighted 
at  it! 

Well,  but  you  see  they  have  not  the  advantage  of 
Aunt  Agitate's  Arguments  in  the  sea-land  down  be- 
low. 

"  Now,"  said  the  fairy  to  Tom,  "  will  you  be  a 
good  boy  for  my  sake,  and  torment  no  more  sea- 
beasts  till  I  come  back?" 

u  And  you  will  cuddle  me  again?  "  said  poor  little 
Tom. 

"  Of  course  I  will,  you  little  duck.  I  should  like 
to  take  you  with  me  and  cuddle  you  all  the  way, 
only  I  must  not;  "  and  away  she  went. 

So  Tom  really  tried  to  be  a  good  boy,  and  tor- 
mented no  sea-beasts  after  that  as  long  as  he  lived; 
and  he  is  quite  alive,  I  assure  you,  still. 

[163] 


THE    WATER- BABIES 

Oh,  how  good  little  boys  ought  to  be  who  have 
kind  pussy  mammas  to  cuddle  them  and  tell  them 
stories;  and  how  afraid  they  ought  to  be  of  growing 
naughty,  and  bringing  tears  into  their  mammas' 
pretty  eyes ! 


CHAPTER  VI 

HERE  I  come  to  the  very  saddest  part  of  all 
my  story.  I  know  some  people  will  only 
laugh  at  it,  and  call  it  much  ado  about  noth- 
ing. But  I  know  one  man  who  would  not;  and  he 
was  an  officer  with  a  pair  of  gray  moustaches  as 
long  as  your  arm,  who  said  once  in  company 
that  two  of  the  most  heartrending  sights  in  the 
world,  which  moved  him  most  to  tears,  which  he 
would  do  anything  to  prevent  or  remedy,  were 
a  child  over  a  broken  toy  and  a  child  stealing 
sweets. 

The  company  did  not  laugh  at  him;  his  mous- 
taches were  too  long  and  too  gray  for  that :  but,  after 
he  was  gone,  they  called  him  sentimental  and  so 
forth,  all  but  one  dear  little  old  Quaker  lady  with  a 
soul  as  white  as  her  cap,  who  was  not,  of  course, 

[165] 


THE    WATER-BABIES 

generally  partial  to  soldiers;  and  she  said  very 
quietly,  like  a  Quaker: 

"  Friends,  it  is  borne  upon  my  mind  that  that  is  a 
truly  brave  man." 

Now  you  may  fancy  that  Tom  was  quite  good, 
when  he  had  everything  that  he  could  want  or  wish : 
but  you  would  be  very  much  mistaken.  Being  quite 
comfortable  is  a  very  good  thing;  but  it  does  not 
make  people  good.  Indeed,  it  sometimes  makes 
them  naughty,  as  it  made  the  people  in  the  Bible, 
who  waxed  fat  and  kicked,  like  horses  overfed  and 
underworked.  And  I  am  very  sorry  to  say  that  this 
happened  to  little  Tom.  For  he  grew  so  fond  of 
the  sea-bullseyes  and  sea-lollipops  that  his  foolish 
little  head  could  think  of  nothing  else :  and  he  was 
always  longing  for  more,  and  wondering  when  the 
strange  lady  would  come  again  and  give  him  some, 
and  what  she  would  give  him,  and  how  much,  and 
whether  she  would  give  him  more  than  the  others. 
And  he  thought  of  nothing  but  lollipops  by  day,  and 
dreamt  of  nothing  else  by  night — and  what  hap- 
pened then? 

That  he  began  to  watch  the  lady  to  see  where 

she  kept  the  sweet  things:  and  began  hiding,  and 

sneaking,  and  following  her  about,  and  pretending  to 

be  looking  the  other  way,  or  going  after  something 

[166] 


THE    WATER-BABIES 

else,  till  he  found  out  that  she  kept  them  in  a  beauti' 
ful  mother-of-pearl  cabinet  away  in  a  deep  crack  of 
the  rocks. 

And  he  longed  to  go  to  the  cabinet,  and  yet  he 
was  afraid;  and  then  he  longed  again,  and  was  less 
afraid;  and  at  last,  by  continual  thinking  about  it, 
he  longed  so  violently  that  he  was  not  afraid  at  all. 
And  one  night,  when  all  the  other  children  were 
asleep,  and  he  could  not  sleep  for  thinking  of  lolli- 
pops, he  crept  away  among  the  rocks,  and  got  to  the 
cabinet,  and  behold!  it  was  open. 

But,  when  he  saw  all  the  nice  things  inside,  instead 
of  being  delighted,  he  was  quite  frightened,  and 
wished  he  had  never  come  there.  And  then  he 
would  only  touch  them,  and  he  did;  and  then  he 
would  only  taste  one,  and  he  did ;  and  then  he  would 
only  eat  one,  and  he  did ;  and  then  he  would  only  eat 
two,  and  then  three,  and  so  on;  and  then  he  was 
terrified  lest  she  should  come  and  catch  him,  and 
began  gobbling  them  down  so  fast  that  he  did  not 
taste  them,  or  have  any  pleasure  in  them;  and  then 
he  felt  sick,  and  would  have  only  one  more;  and 
then  only  one  more  again;  and  so  on  till  he  had  eaten 
them  all  up. 

And  all  the  while,  close  behind  him,  stood  Mrs. 
Bedonebyasyoudid. 

[167] 


THE   WATER-BABIES 

Some  people  may  say,  But  why  did  she  not  keep 
her  cupboard  locked?  Well,  I  know. — It  may 
seem  a  very  strange  thing,  but  she  never  does 
keep  her  cupboard  locked;  every  one  may  go  and 
taste  for  themselves,  and  fare  accordingly.  It  is 
very  odd,  but  so  it  is;  and  I  am  quite  sure  that 
she  knows  best.  Perhaps  she  wishes  people  to  keep 
their  fingers  out  of  the  fire,  by  having  them  burned. 

She  took  off  her  spectacles,  because  she  did  not 
like  to  see  too  much;  and  in  her  pity  she  arched  up 
her  eyebrows  into  her  very  hair,  and  her  eyes  grew 
so  wide  that  they  would  have  taken  in  all  the  sor- 
rows of  the  world,  and  filled  with  great  big  tears,  as 
they  too  often  did. 

But  all  she  said  was : 

"Ah,  you  poor  little  dear!  you  are  just  like  all 
the  rest." 

But  she  said  it  to  herself,  and  Tom  neither  heard 
nor  saw  her.  Now,  you  must  not  fancy  that  she  was 
sentimental  at  all.  If  you  do,  and  think  that  she  is 
going  to  let  off  you,  or  me,  or  any  human  being  when 
we  do  wrong,  because  she  is  too  tender-hearted  to 
punish  us,  then  you  will  find  yourself  very  much  mis- 
taken, as  many  a  man  does  every  year  and  every  day. 

But  what  did  the  strange  fairy  do  when  she  saw 
all  her  lollipops  eaten? 

[168] 


THE    WATER-BABIES 

Did  she  fly  at  Tom,  catch  him  by  the  scruff  of  the 
neck,  hold  him,  howk  him,  hump  him,  hurry  him, 
hit  him,  poke  him,  pull  him,  pinch  him,  pound  him, 
put  him  in  the  corner,  shake  htm,  slap  him,  set  him 
on  a  cold  stone  to  reconsider  himself,  and  so  forth? 

Not  a  bit.  You  may  watch  her  at  work  if  you 
know  where  to  find  her.  But  you  will  never  see  her 
do  that.  For,  if  she  had,  she  knew  quite  well  Tom 
would  have  fought,  and  kicked,  and  bit,  and  said  bad 
words,  and  turned  again  that  moment  into  a  naughty 
little  heathen  chimney-sweep,  with  his  hand,  like 
Ishmael's  of  old,  against  every  man,  and  every 
man's  hand  against  him. 

Did  she  question  him,  hurry  him,  frighten  him, 
threaten  him,  to  make  him  confess?  Not  a  bit.  You 
may  see  her,  as  I  said,  at  her  work  often  enough  if 
you  know  where  to  look  for  her :  but  you  will  never 
see  her  do  that.  For,  if  she  had,  she  would  have 
tempted  him  to  tell  lies  in  his  fright;  and  that  would 
have  been  worse  for  him,  if  possible,  than  even  be- 
coming a  heathen  chimney-sweep  again. 

No.  She  leaves  that  for  anxious  parents  and 
teachers  (lazy  ones,  some  call  them),  who,  instead 
of  giving  children  a  fair  trial,  such  as  they  would 
expect  and  demand  for  themselves,  force  them  by 
fright  to  confess  their  own  faults — which  is  so  cruel 

[169] 


THE   WATER-BABIES 

and  unfair  that  no  judge  on  the  bench  dare  do  it  to 
the  wickedest  thief  or  murderer,  for  the  good  British 
law  forbids  it — ay,  and  even  punish  them  to  make 
them  confess,  which  is  so  detestable  a  crime  that  it  is 
never  committed  now,  save  by  Inquisitors,  and  Kings 


of  Naples,  and  a  few  other  wretched  people  of 
whom  the  world  is  weary.  And  then  they  say,  "  We. 
have  trained  up  the  child  in  the  way  he  should  go, 
find  when  he  grew  up  he  has  departed  from  it.  Why 
then  did  Solomon  say  that  he  would  not  depart  from 
it?"  But  perhaps  the  way  of  beating,  and  hurry- 
ing, and  frightening,  and  questioning,  was  not  the 
way  that  the  child  should  go;  for  it  is  not  even  the 
way  in  which  a  colt  should  go  if  you  want  to  break 
ft  in  and  make  it  a  quiet  serviceable  horse. 
[170] 


THE    WATER-BABIES 

Some  folks  may  say,  "  Ah !  but  the  Fairy  does  not 
need  to  do  that  if  she  knows  everything  already.'* 
True.  But,  if  she  did  not  know,  she  would  not  surely 
behave  worse  than  a  British  judge  and  jury;  and  no 
more  should  parents  and  teachers  either. 

So  she  just  said  nothing  at  all  about  the  matter, 
not  even  when  Tom  came  next  day  with  the  rest  foi 
sweet  things.  He  was  horribly  afraid  of  coming: 
but  he  was  still  more  afraid  of  staying  away,  lest  any 
one  should  suspect  him.  He  was  dreadfully  afraid, 
too,  lest  there  should  be  no  sweets — as  was  to  be 
expected,  he  having  eaten  them  all — and  lest  then 
the  fairy  should  inquire  who  had  taken  them.  But, 
behold!  she  pulled  out  just  as  many  as  ever,  which 
astonished  Tom,  and  frightened  him  still  more. 

And,  when  the  fairy  looked  him  full  in  the  face,  he 
shook  from  head  to  foot :  however  she  gave  him  his 
share  like  the  rest,  and  he  thought  within  himself 
that  she  could  not  have  found  him  out. 

But,  when  he  put  the  sweets  into  his  mouth,  he 
hated  the  taste  of  them;  and  they  made  him  so  sick 
that  he  had  to  get  away  as  fast  as  he  could;  and 
terribly  sick  he  was,  and  very  cross  and  unhappy,  all 
the  week  after. 

Then,  when  next  week  came,  he  had  his  share 
again;  and  again  the  fairy  looked  him  full  in  the 


THE    WATER-BABIES 

face ;  but  more  sadly  than  she  had  ever  looked.  And 
he  could  not  bear  the  sweets :  but  took  them  again  in 
spite  of  himself. 

And  when  Mrs.  Doasyouwouldbedoneby  came,  he 
wanted  to  be  cuddled  like  the  rest;  but  she  said  very 
seriously : 

"I  should  like  to  cuddle  you;  but  I  cannot,  you 
are  so  horny  and  prickly." 

And  Tom  looked  at  himself:  and  he  was  all  over 
prickles,  just  like  a  sea-egg. 

Which  was  quite  natural ;  for  you  must  know  and 
believe  that  people's  souls  make  their  bodies  just  as 
a  snail  makes  its  shell  (I  am  not  joking,  my  little 
man;  I  am  in  serious,  solemn  earnest).  And  there- 
fore, when  Tom's  soul  grew  all  prickly  with  naughty 
tempers,  his  body  could  not  help  growing  prickly 
too,  so  that  nobody  would  cuddle  him,  or  play  with 
him,  or  even  like  to  look  at  him. 

What  could  Tom  do  now  but  go  away  and  hide  in 
a  corner  and  cry  ?  For  nobody  would  play  with  him, 
and  he  knew  full  well  why. 

And  he  was  so  miserable  all  that  week  that  when 
the  ugly  fairy  came  and  looked  at  him  once  more 
full  in  the  face,  more  seriously  and  sadly  than  ever,' 
he  could  stand  it  no  longer,  and  thrust  the  sweet- 
meats away,  saying,  "  No,  I  don't  want  any:  I  can't 

[ 


THE    WATER-BABIES 

bear  them  now,"  and  then  burst  out  crying,  poor 
little  man,  and  told  Mrs.  Bedonebyasyoudid  every 
word  as  it  happened. 

He  was  horribly  frightened  when  he  had  done  so ; 
for  he  expected  her  to  punish  him  very  severely. 
But,  instead,  she  only  took  him  up  and  kissed  him, 
which  was  not  quite  pleasant,  for  her  chin  was  very 
bristly  indeed;  but  he  was  so  lonely-hearted,  he 
thought  that  rough  kissing  was  better  than  none. 

11 1  will  forgive  you,  little  man,"  she  said.  "  I 
always  forgive  every  one  the  moment  they  tell  me 
the  truth  of  their  own  accord." 

"  Then  you  will  take  away  all  these  nasty 
prickles?  " 

11  That  is  a  very  different  matter.  You  put  them 
there  yourself,  and  only  you  can  take  them  away." 

"But  how  can  I  do  that?"  asked  Tom,  crying 
afresh. 

"  Well,  I  think  it  is  time  for  you  to  go  to  school; 
so  I  shall  fetch  you  a  schoolmistress,  who  will  teach 
you  how  to  get  rid  of  your  prickles."  And  so  she 
went  away.  Tom  was  frightened  at  the  notion  of  a 
schoolmistress;  for  he  thought  she  would  certainly 
come  with  a  birch-rod  or  a  cane;  but  he  comforted 
himself,  at  last,  that  she  might  be  something  like  the 
old  woman  in  Vendale — which  she  was  not  in  the 

[  173] 


THE    WATER-BABIES 

least;  for,  when  the  fairy  brought  her,  she  was  the 
most  beautiful  little  girl  that  ever  was  seen,  with  long 
curls  floating  behind  her  like  a  golden  cloud,  and 
long  robes  floating  all  round  her  like  a  silver  one. 

"There  he  is,"  said  the  fairy;  "and  you  must 
teach  him  to  be  good,  whether  you  like  or  not." 

"I  know,"  said  the  little  girl;  but  she  did  not 
seem  quite  to  like,  for  she  put  her  finger  in  her 
mouth,  and  looked  at  Tom  under  her  brows;  and 
Tom  put  his  finger  in  his  mouth,  and  looked  at  her 
under  his  brows,  for  he  was  horribly  ashamed  of 
himself. 

The  little  girl  seemed  hardly  to  know  how  to 
begin ;  and  perhaps  she  would  never  have  begun  at  all 
if  poor  Tom  had  not  burst  out  crying,  and  begged 
her  to  teach  him  to  be  good  and  help  him  to  cure 
his  prickles;  and  at  that  she  grew  so  tender-hearted 
that  she  began  teaching  him  as  prettily  as  ever  child 
was  taught  in  the  world. 

And  what  did  the  little  girl  teach  Tom?  She 
taught  him,  first,  what  you  have  been  taught  ever 
since  you  said  your  first  prayers  at  your  mother's 
knees;  but  she  taught  him  much  more  simply.  For 
the  lessons  in  that  world,  my  child,  have  no  such 
hard  words  in  them  as  the  lessons  in  this,  and  there- 
fore the  water-babies  like  them  better  than  you  like 

[174] 


THE    WATER-BABIES 

your  lessons,  and  long  to  learn  them  more  and  more; 
and  grown  men  cannot  puzzle  nor  quarrel  over  their 
meaning,  as  they  do  here  on  land;  for  those  lessons 
all  rise  clear  and  pure  out  of  the  everlasting  ground 
of  all  life  and  truth. 

So  she  taught  Tom  every  day  in  the  week;  only 
on  Sundays  she  always  went  away  home,  and  the 
kind  fairy  took  her  place.  And  before  she  had 
taught  Tom  many  Sundays,  his  prickles  had  vanished 
quite  away,  and  his  skin  was  smooth  and  clean  again. 

"  Dear  me!  "  said  the  little  girl;  "  why,  I  know 
you  now.  You  are  the  very  same  little  chimney- 
sweep who  came  into  my  bedroom." 

"  Dear  me !  "  cried  Tom.  "  And  I  know  you, 
too,  now.  You  are  the  very  little  white  lady  whom 
I  saw  in  bed."  And  he  jumped  at  her,  and  longed 
to  hug  and  kiss  her;  but  did  not,  remembering  that 
she  was  a  lady  born;  so  he  only  jumped  round  and 
round  her  till  he  was  quite  tired. 

And  then  they  began  telling  each  other  all  their 
story — how  he  had  got  into  the  water,  and  she  had 
fallen  over  the  rock;  and  how  he  had  swum  down  to 
the  sea,  and  how  she  had  flown  out  of  the  window; 
and  how  this,  that,  and  the  other,  till  it  was  all  talked 
out:  and  then  they  both  began  over  again,  and  I 
can't  say  which  of  the  two  talked  fastest. 

[175] 


THE    WATER-BABIES 

And  then  they  set  to  work  at  their  lessons  again, 
and  both  liked  them  so  well  that  they  went  on  well 
till  seven  full  years  were  past  and  gone. 

You  may  fancy  that  Tom  was  quite  content  and 
happy  all  those  seven  years;  but  the  truth  is,  he  was 
not.  He  had  always  one  thing  on  his  mind,  and  that 
was — where  little  Ellie  went,  when  she  went  home  on 
Sundays. 

To  a  very  beautiful  place,  she  said. 

But  what  was  the  beautiful  place  like,  and  where 
was  it? 

Ah !  that  is  just  what  she  could  not  say.  And  it 
is  strange,  but  true,  that  no  one  can  say;  and  that 
those  who  have  been  oftenest  in  it,  or  even  nearest  to 
it,  can  say  least  about  it,  and  make  people  understand 
least  what  it  is  like.  There  are  a  good  many  folks 
about  the  Other-end-of-Nowhere  (where  Tom  went 
afterwards),  who  pretend  to  know  it  from  north  to 
south  as  well  as  if  they  had  been  penny  postmen 
there;  but,  as  they  are  safe  at  the  Other-end-of- 
Nowhere,  nine  hundred  and  ninety-nine  million  miles 
away,  what  they  say  cannot  concern  us. 

But  the  dear,  sweet,  loving,  wise,  good,  self- 
sacrificing  people,  who  really  go  there,  can  never  tell 
you  anything  about  it,  save  that  it  is  the  most  beauti- 
ful place  in  all  the  world;  and,  if  you  ask  them  more, 
[176] 


THE    WATER-BABIES 

they  grow  modest,  and  hold  their  peace,  for  fear  of 
being  laughed  at;  and  quite  right  they  are. 

So  all  that  good  little  Ellie  could  say  was,  that  it 
was  worth  all  the  rest  of  the  world  put  together. 
And  of  course  that  only  made  Tom  the  more  anxious 
to  go  likewise. 

"  Miss  Ellie,"  he  said  at  last,  "  I  will  know  why 
I  cannot  go  with  you  when  you  go  home  on  Sun- 
days, or  I  shall  have  no  peace,  and  give  you  none 
either." 

"  You  must  ask  the  fairies  that." 

So  when  the  fairy,  Mrs.  Bedonebyasyoudid,  came 
next,  Tom  asked  her. 

"  Little  boys  who  are  only  fit  to  play  with  sea- 
beasts  cannot  go  there,"  she  said.  "  Those  who  go 
there  must  go  first  where  they  do  not  like,  and  do 
what  they  do  not  like,  and  help  somebody  they  do 
not  like." 

11  Why,  did  Ellie  do  that?" 

"  Ask  her." 

And  Ellie  blushed,  and  said,  "  Yes,  Tom,  I  did 
not  like  coming  here  at  first;  I  was  so  much  happier 
at  home,  where  it  is  always  Sunday.  And  I  was 
afraid  of  you,  Tom,  at  first,  because — because " 

"  Because  I  was  all  over  prickles?  But  I  am  not 
prickly  now,  am  I,  Miss  Ellie?  " 

f  177] 


THE    WATER-BABIES 

"  No,"  said  Ellie.  "  I  like  you  very  much  now; 
and  I  like  coming  here,  too." 

"  And  perhaps,"  said  the  fairy,  "  you  will  learn 
to  like  going  where  you  don't  like,  and  helping  some 
one  that  you  don't  like,  as  Ellie  has." 

But  Tom  put  his  finger  in  his  mouth,  and  hung 
his  head  down;  for  he  did  not  see  that  at  all. 

So  when  Mrs.  Doasyouwouldbedoneby  came,  Tom 
asked  her;  for  he  thought  in  his  little  head,  She  is 
not  so  strict  as  her  sister,  and  perhaps  she  may  let 
me  off  more  easily. 

Ah,  Tom,  Tom,  silly  fellow !  and  yet  I  don't  know 
why  I  should  blame  you,  while  so  many  grown 
people  have  got  the  very  same  notion  in  their  heads. 

But,  when  they  try  it,  they  get  just  the  same 
answer  as  Tom  did.  For,  when  he  asked  the  second 
fairy,  she  told  him  just  what  the  first  did,  and  in  the 
very  same  words. 

Tom  was  very  unhappy  at  that.  And,  when  Ellie 
went  home  on  Sunday,  he  fretted  and  cried  all  day, 
and  did  not  care  to  listen  to  the  fairy's  stories  about 
gooa  children,  though  they  were  prettier  than  ever. 
Indeed,  the  more  he  overheard  of  them,  the  less  he 
liked  to  listen,  because  they  were  all  about  children 
who  did  what  they  did  not  like,  and  took  trouble  for 
other  people,  and  worked  to  feed  their  little  brothers 

fi781 


WATER-BABIES 


and  sisters  instead  of  caring  only 
for  their  play.  And,  when  she 
began  to  tell  a  story  about  a  holy 
child  in  old  times,  who  was  mar- 
tyred by  the  heathen  because  it 
would  not  worship  idols,  Tom 
could  bear  no  more,  and  ran 
away  and  hid  among  the  rocks. 

And,  when  Ellie  came  back, 
he  was  shy  with  her,  because  he 
fancied  she  looked  down  on  him, 
and  thought  him  a  coward.  And 
then  he  grew  quite  cross  with  her,  because  she  was 
superior  to  him,  and  did  what  he  could  not  do.  And 
poor  Ellie  was  quite  surprised  and  sad;  and  at  last 
Tom  burst  out  crying;  but  he  would  not  tell  her 
what  was  really  in  his  mind. 

And  all  the  while  he  was  eaten  up  with  curiosity 
to  know  where  Ellie  went  to  ;  so  that  he  began  not  to 
care  for  his  playmates,  or  for  the  sea-palace  or  any- 
thing else.  But  perhaps  that  made  matters  all  the 
easier  for  him;  for  he  grew  so  discontented  with 
everything  round  him  that  he  did  not  care  to  stay, 
and  did  not  care  where  he  went. 

"  Well,"  he  said,  at  last,  "  I  am  so  miserable  here, 
I'll  go  ;  if  only  you  will  go  with  me  ?  " 

[  179] 


THE   WATER-BABIES 

"  Ah !  "  said  Ellie,  "  I  wish  I  might;  but  the  worst 
of  it  is,  that  the  fairy  says  that  you  must  go  alone  if 
you  go  at  all.  Now  don't  poke  that  poor  crab  about, 
Tom"  (for  he  was  feeling  very  naughty  and  mis- 
chievous), "  or  the  fairy  will  have  to  punish  you." 

Tom  was  very  nearly  saying,  "  I  don't  care  if  she 
does;  "  but  he  stopped  himself  in  time. 

"  I  know  what  she  wants  me  to  do,"  he  said, 
whining  most  dolefully.  "  She  wants  me  to  go  after 
that  horrid  old  Grimes.  I  don't  like  him,  that's 
certain.  And  if  I  find  him,  he  will  turn  me  into  a 
chimney-sweep  again,  I  know.  That's  what  I  have 
been  afraid  of  all  along." 

"  No,  he  won't — I  know  as  much  as  that.  No- 
body can  turn  water-babies  into  sweeps,  or  hurt  them 
at  all,  as  long  as  they  are  good." 

"  Ah,"  said  naughty  Tom,  "  I  see  what  you  want; 
you  are  persuading  me  all  along  to  go,  because  you 
are  tired  of  me,  and  want  to  get  rid  of  me." 

Little  Ellie  opened  her  eyes  very  wide  at  that,  and 
they  were  all  brimming  over  with  tears. 

"  Oh,  Tom,  Tom !  "  she  said,  very  mournfully — 
and  then  she  cried,  "  Oh,  Tom!  where  are  you?  " 

And  Tom  cried,  "  Oh,  Ellie,  where  are  you?  " 

For  neither  of  them  could  see  each  other — not 
the  least.  Little  Ellie  vanished  quite  away,  and 
Ti8o] 


THE    WATER-BABIES 

Tom  heard  her  voice  calling  him,  and  growing 
smaller  and  smaller,  and  fainter  and  fainter,  till  all 
was  silent. 

Who  was  frightened  then  but  Tom?  He  swam 
up  and  down  among  the  rocks,  into  all  the  halls  and 
chambers,  faster  than  ever  he  swam  before,  but  could 
not  find  her.  He  shouted  after  her,  but  she  did  not 
answer;  he  asked  all  the  other  children,  but  they  had 
not  seen  her;  and  at  last  he  went  up  to  the  top  of  the 
water  and  began  crying  and  screaming  for  Mrs. 
Bedonebyasyoudid — which  perhaps  was  the  best 
thing  to  do — for  she  came  in  a  moment. 

"Oh!  "said  Tom.  "  Oh,  dear,  oh  dear !  I  have 
been  naughty  to  Ellie,  and  I  have  killed  her — I  know 
I  have  killed  her." 

"  Not  quite  that,"  said  the  fairy;  "  but  I  have  sent 
her  away  home,  and  she  will  not  come  back  again 
for  I  do  not  know  how  long." 

And  at  that  Tom  cried  so  bitterly  that  the  salt 
sea  was  swelled  with  his  tears,  and  the  tide  was 
3,954,620,819  of  an  inch  higher  than  it  had  been 
the  day  before :  but  perhaps  that  was  owing  to  the 
waxing  of  the  moon. 

"  How  cruel  of  you  to  send  Ellie  away!  "  sobbed 
Tom.  "  However,  I  will  find  her  again,  if  I  go  ta 
the  world's  end  to  look  for  her." 

[181! 


THE    WATER-BABIES 

The  fairy  did  not  slap  Tom,  and  tell  him  to  hold 
his  tongue :  but  she  took  him  on  her  lap  very  kindly, 
just  as  her  sister  would  have  done;  and  put  him  in 
mind  how  it  was  not  her  fault,  because  she  was 
wound  up  inside,  like  watches,  and  could  not  help 
doing  things  whether  she  liked  or  not.  And  then  she 
told  him  how  he  had  been  in  the  nursery  long  enough, 
and  must  go  out  now  and  see  the  world,  if  he  in- 
tended ever  to  be  a  man;  and  how  he  must  go  all 
alone  by  himself,  as  every  one  else  that  ever  was 
born  has  to  go,  and  see  with  his  own  eyes,  and  smell 
with  his  own  nose,  and  make  his  own  bed  and  lie  on 
it,  and  burn  his  own  fingers  if  he  put  them  into  the 
fire.  And  then  she  told  him  how  many  fine  things 
there  were  to  be  seen  in  the  world,  and  what  an  odd, 
curious,  pleasant,  orderly,  respectable,  well-managed, 
and,  on  the  whole,  successful  (as,  indeed,  might  have 
been  expected)  sort  of  a  place  it  was,  if  people  would 
only  be  tolerably  brave  and  honest  and  good  in  it; 
and  then  she  told  him  not  to  be  afraid  of  anything  he 
met,  for  nothing  would  harm  him  if  he  remembered 
all  his  lessons,  and  did  what  he  knew  was  right. 
And  at  last  she  comforted  poor  little  Tom  so  much 
that  he  was  quite  eager  to  go,  and  wanted  to  set  out 
that  minute.  "  Only,"  he  said,  "  if  I  might  see  Ellie 
once  before  I  went!  " 

[182] 


THE   WATER-BABIES 

"Why  do  you  want  that?" 

"  Because — because  I  should  be  so  much  happier 
if  I  thought  she  had  forgiven  me." 

And  in  the  twinkling  of  an  eye  there  stood  Ellie, 
smiling,  and  looking  so  happy  that  Tom  longed  to 
kiss  her;  but  was  still  afraid  it  would  not  be  respect- 
ful, because  she  was  a  lady  born. 

"  I  am  going,  Ellie !  "  said  Tom.  "  I  am  going,  if 
it  is  to  the  world's  end.  But  I  don't  like  going  at  all, 
and  that's  the  truth." 

"  Pooh !  pooh !  pooh !  "  said  the  fairy.  "  You  will 
like  it  very  well  indeed,  you  little  rogue,  and  you  know 
that  at  the  bottom  of  your  heart.  But  if  you  don't, 
I  will  make  you  like  it.  Come  here,  and  see  what 
happens  to  people  who  do  only  what  is  pleasant." 

And  she  took  out  of  one  of  her  cupboards  (she 
had  all  sorts  of  mysterious  cupboards  in  the  cracks 
of  the  rocks)  the  most  wonderful  waterproof  book, 
full  of  such  photographs  as  never  were  seen.  For 
she  had  found  out  photography  (and  this  is  a  fact) 
more  than  13,598,000  years  before  anybody  was 
born;  and,  what  is  more,  her  photographs  did  not 
merely  represent  light  and  shade,  as  ours  do,  but 
color  also,  and  all  colors,  as  you  may  see  if  you  look 
at  a  blackcock's  tail,  or  a  butterfly's  wing,  or  indeed 
most  things  that  are  or  can  be,  so  to  speak.  And 

[183] 


THE   WATER-BABIES 

therefore  her  photographs  were  very  curious  and 
famous,  and  the  children  looked  with  great  delight 
for  the  opening  of  the  book. 

And  on  the  title-page  was  written,  "  The  History 
of  the  great  and  famous  nation  of  the  Doasyoulikes, 
who  came  away  from  the  country  of  Hardwork,  be- 


cause they  wanted  to  play  on  the  Jews'  harp  all  day 
long." 

In  the  first  picture  they  saw  these  Doasyoulikes 
living  in  the  land  of  Readymade,  at  the  foot  of  the 
Happy-go-lucky  Mountains,  where  flapdoodle  grows 
wild;  and  if  you  want  to  know  what  that  is,  you  must 
read  Peter  Simple. 

They  lived  very  much  such  a  life  as  those  jolly  old 
Greeks  in  Sicily,  whom  you  may  see  painted  on  the 
ancient  vases,  and  really  there  seemed  to  be  great 
excuses  for  them,  for  they  had  no  need  to  work. 

[184] 


THE   WATER-BABIES 

Instead  of  houses  they  lived  in  the  beautiful  caves 
of  tufa,  and  bathed  in  the  warm  springs  three  times 
a  day;  and,  as  for  clothes,  it  was  so  warm  there  that 
ihe  gentlemen  walked  about  in  little  beside  a  cocked 
hat  and  a  pair  of  straps,  or  some  light  summer  tackle 
of  that  kind;  and  the  ladies  all  gathered  gossamer  in 
autumn  (when  they  were  not  too  lazy)  to  make  their 
winter  dresses. 

They  were  very  fond  of  music,  but  it  was  too 
much  trouble  to  learn  the  piano  or  the  violin;  and  as 
for  dancing,  that  would  have  been  too  great  an  ex- 
ertion. So  they  sat  on  ant-hills  all  day  long,  and 
played  on  the  Jews'  harp;  and,  if  the  ants  bit  them, 
why  they  just  got  up  and  went  to  the  next  ant-hill, 
till  they  were  bitten  there  likewise. 

And  they  sat  under  the  flapdoodle-trees,  and  let 
the  flapdoodle  drop  into  their  mouths;  and  under  the 
vines,  and  squeezed  the  grape-juice  down  their 
throats;  and,  if  any  little  pigs  ran  about  ready 
roasted,  crying,  "  Come  and  eat  me,"  as  was  their 
fashion  in  that  country,  they  waited  till  the  pigs  ran 
against  their  mouths,  and  then  took  a  bite,  and  were 
content,  just  as  so  many  oysters  would  have  been. 

They  needed  no  weapons,  for  no  enemies  ever 
came  near  their  land;  and  no  tools,  for  everything 
was  readymade  to  their  hand ;  and  the  stern  old  fairy 

[185] 


THE   WATER- BABIES 

Necessity  never  came  near  them  to  hunt  them  up,  and 
make  them  use  their  wits,  or  die. 

And  so  on,  and  so  on,  and  so  on,  till  there  were 
never  such  comfortable,  easy-going,  happy-go-lucky 
people  in  the  world. 

"  Well,  that  is  a  jolly  life,"  said  Tom. 

"You  think  so?"  said  the  fairy.  "Do  you  see 
that  great  peaked  mountain  there  behind,"  said  the 
fairy,  "  with  smoke  coming  out  of  its  top?  " 

"  Yes." 

"  And  do  you  see  all  those  ashes,  and  slag,  and 
cinders  lying  about?" 

"  Yes." 

"  Then  turn  over  the  next  five  hundred  years,  and 
you  will  see  what  happens  next." 

And  behold  the  mountain  had  blown  up  like  a 
barrel  of  gunpowder,  and  then  boiled  over  like  a 
kettle;  whereby  one-third  of  the  Doasyoulikes  were 
blown  into  the  air,  and  another  third  were  smothered 
in  ashes;  so  that  there  was  only  one-third  left. 

"  You  see,"  said  the  fairy,  "  what  comes  of  living 
on  a  burning  mountain." 

"  Oh,  why  did  you  not  warn  them?"  said  little 
Ellie. 

"  I  did  warn  them  all  that  I  could.  I  let  the 
smoke  come  out  of  the  mountain;  and  wherever  there 
[186] 


THE>  WATER- BABIES 

is  smoke  there  is  fire.  And  I  laid  the  ashes  and 
cinders  all  about;  and  wherever  there  are  cinders, 
cinders  may  be  again.  But  they  did  not  like  to  face 
facts,  my  dears,  as  very  few  people  do;  and  so  they 
invented  a  cock-and-bull  story,  which,  I  am  sure,  I 
never  told  them,  that  the  smoke  was  the  breath  of  a 
giant,  whom  some  gods  or  other  had  buried  under 
the  mountain;  and  that  the  cinders  were  what  the 
dwarfs  roasted  the  little  pigs  whole  with;  and  other 
nonsense  of  that  kind.  And,  when  folks  are  in  that 
humour,  I  cannot  teach  them,  save  by  the  good  old 
birch-rod." 

And  then  she  turned  over  the  next  five  hundred 
years:  and  there  were  the  remnant  of  the  Doasyou- 
likes,  doing  as  they  liked,  as  before.  They  were  too 
lazy  to  move  away  from  the  mountain;  so  they  said, 
If  it  has  blown  up  once,  that  is  all  the  more  reason 
that  it  should  not  blow  up  again.  And  they  were 
few  in  number:  but  they  only  said,  The  more  the 
merrier,  but  the  fewer  the  better  fare.  However, 
that  was  not  quite  true;  for  all  the  flapdoodle-trees 
were  killed  by  the  volcano,  and  they  had  eaten  all  the 
roast  pigs,  who,  of  course,  could  not  be  expected  to 
have  little  ones.  So  they  had  to  live  very  hard,  on 
nuts  and  roots  which  they  scratched  out  of  the 
ground  with  sticks.  Some  of  them  talked  of  sowing 

[187] 


THE   WATER-BABIES 

corn,  as  their  ancestors  used  to  do,  before  they  came 
into  the  land  of  Readymade ;  but  they  had  forgotten 
how  to  make  ploughs  (they  had  forgotten  even  how 
to  make  Jews'  harps  by  this  time) ,  and  had  eaten  all 
the  seed-corn  which  they  brought  out  of  the  land  of 
Hardwork  years  since ;  and  of  course  it  was  too  much 
trouble  to  go  away  and  find  more.  So  they  lived 
miserably  on  roots  and  nuts,  and  all  the  weakly 
little  children  had  great  stomachaches,  and  then 
died. 

"  Why,"  said  Tom,  "  they  are  growing  no  better 
than  savages." 

u  And  look  how  ugly  they  are  all  getting,"  said 
Ellie. 

"Yes;  when  people  live  on  poor  vegetables  in- 
stead of  roast  beef  and  plum-pudding,  their  jaws 
grow  large,  and  their  lips  grow  coarse,  like  the  poor 
Paddies  who  eat  potatoes." 

And  she  turned  over  the  next  five  hundred  years. 
And  there  they  were  all  living  up  in  trees,  and 
making  nests  to  keep  off  the  rain.  And  underneath 
the  trees  lions  were  prowling  about. 

"  Why,"  said  Ellie,  "  the  lions  seem  to  have  eaten 
a  good  many  of  them,  for  there  are  very  few  left 
now." 

'  Yes,"  said  the  fairy;  "you  see  it  was  only  the 
[188] 


THE   WATER-BABIES 

strongest  and  most  active  ones  who  could  climb  the 
trees,  and  so  escape." 

"  But  what  great,  hulking,  broad-shouldered  chaps 
they  are,"  said  Tom;  "  they  are  a  rough  lot  as  ever  I 
saw." 

"Yes,  they  are  getting  very  strong  now;  for  the 
ladies  will  not  marry  any  but  the  very  strongest  and 
fiercest  gentlemen,  who  can  help  them  up  the  trees 
out  of  the  lions'  way." 

And  she  turned  over  the  next  five  hundred  years. 
And  in  that  they  were  fewer  still,  and  stronger,  and 
fiercer;  but  their  feet  had  changed  shape  very  oddly, 
for  they  laid  hold  of  the  branches  with  their  great 
toes  as  if  they  had  been  thumbs,  just  as  a  Hindoo 
tailor  uses  his  toes  to  thread  his  needle. 

The  children  were  very  much  surprised,  and  asked 
the  fairy  whether  that  was  her  doing. 

"  Yes,  and  no,"  she  said,  smiling.  "  It  was  only 
those  who  could  use  their  feet  as  well  as  their  hands 
who  could  get  a  good  living:  or,  indeed,  get  married; 
so  that  they  got  the  best  of  everything,  and  starved 
out  all  the  rest;  and  those  who  are  left  keep  up  a 
regular  breed  of  toe-thumb-men,  as  a  breed  of  short- 
horns, or  skye-terriers,  or  fancy  pigeons  is  kept 
up." 

"  But  there  is  a  hairy  one  among  them,"  said  Ellie. 
[189] 


THE   WATER-BABIES 

"  Ah!  "  said  the  fairy,  "  that  will  be  a  great  man 
in  his  time,  and  chief  of  all  the  tribe." 

And,  when  she  turned  over  the  next  five  hundred 
years,  it  was  true. 

For  this  hairy  chief  had  had  hairy  children,  and 
they  hairier  children  still;  and  every  one  wished  to 
marry  hairy  husbands,  and  have  hairy  children  too; 
for  the  climate  was  growing  so  damp  that  none  but 
the  hairy  ones  could  live:  all  the  rest  coughed  and 
sneezed,  and  had  sore  throats,  and  went  into  con- 
sumptions, before  they  could  grow  up  to  be  men  and 
women. 

Then  the  fairy  turned  over  the  next  five  hundred 
years.  And  they  were  fewer  still. 

"  Why,  there  is  one  on  the  ground  picking  up 
roots,"  said  Ellie,  "  and  he  cannot  walk  upright." 

No  more  he  could;  for  in  the  same  way  that  the 
shape  of  their  feet  had  altered,  the  shape  of  their 
backs  had  altered  also. 

"  Why,"  cried  Tom,  "  I  declare  they  are  all  apes." 

"  Something  fearfully  like  it,  poor  foolish  crea- 
tures," said  the  fairy.  "  They  are  grown  so  stupid 
now,  that  they  can  hardly  think:  for  none  of  them 
have  used  their  wits  for  many  hundred  years.  They 
have  almost  forgotten,  too,  how  to  talk.  For  each 
stupid  child  forgot  some  of  the  words  it  heard  from 

[190] 


THE    WATER-BABIES 

its  stupid  parents,  and  has  not  wits  enough  to  make 
fresh  words  for  itself.  Besides,  they  are  grown  so 
fierce  and  suspicious  and  brutal  that  they  keep  out  of 
each  other's  way,  and  mope  and  sulk  in  the  dark 
forests,  never  hearing  each  other's  voice,  till  they 
have  forgotten  almost  what  speech  is  like.  I  am 
afraid  they  will  all  be  apes  very  soon,  and  all  by 
doing  only  what  they  liked." 

And  in  the  next  five  hundred  years  they  were  all 
dead  and  gone,  by  bad  food  and  wild  beasts  and 
hunters;  all  except  one  tremendous  old  fellow  with 
jaws  like  a  jack,  who  stood  full  seven  feet  high;  and 
M.  Du  Chaillu  came  up  to  him,  and  shot  him,  as  he 
stood  roaring  and  thumping  his  breast.  And  he  re- 
membered that  his  ancestors  had  once  been  men,  and 
tried  to  say,  "  Am  I  not  a  man  and  a  brother?  "  but 
had  forgotten  how  to  use  his  tongue;  and  then  he 
had  tried  to  call  for  a  doctor,  but  he  had  forgotten 
the  word  for  one.  So  all  he  said  was  "  Ubboboo !  " 
and  died. 

And  that  was  the  end  of  the  great  and  jolly  nation 
of  the  Doasyoulikes.  And,  when  Tom  and  Ellie 
came  to  the  end  of  the  book,  they  looked  very  sad 
and  solemn;  and  they  had  good  reason  so  to  do,  for 
they  really  fancied  that  the  men  were  apes,  and  never 
thought,  in  their  simplicity,  of  asking  whether  the 

[191] 


THE    WATER-BABIES 

creatures  had  hippopotamus  majors  in  their  brains  or 
not;  in  which  case,  as  you  have  been  told  already, 
they  could  not  possibly  have  been  apes,  though  they 
were  more  apish  than  the  apes  of  all  aperies. 

"  But  could  you  not  have  saved  them  from  becom- 
ing apes?  "  said  little  Ellie,  at  last. 

"At  first,  my  dear;  if  only  they  would  have  be- 
haved like  men,  and  set  to  work  to  do  what  they  did 
not  like.  But  the  longer  they  waited,  and  behaved 
like  the  dumb  beasts,  who  only  do  what  they  like,  the 
stupider  and  clumsier  they  grew;  till  at  last  they  were 
past  all  cure,  for  they  had  thrown  their  own  wits 
away.  It  is  such  things  as  this  that  help  to  make  me 
so  ugly,  that  I  know  not  when  I  shall  grow  fair." 

"  And  where  are  they  all  now?  "  asked  Ellie. 

"  Exactly  where  they  ought  to  be,  my  dear." 

"  Yes !  "  said  the  fairy,  solemnly,  half  to  herself, 
as  she  closed  the  wonderful  book.  "  Folks  say  now 
that  I  can  make  beasts  into  men,  by  circumstances, 
and  selection,  and  competition,  and  so  forth.  Well, 
perhaps  they  are  right;  and  perhaps,  again,  they  are 
wrong.  That  is  one  of  the  seven  things  which  I  am 
forbidden  to  tell,  till  the  coming  of  the  Cocqcigrues ; 
and,  at  all  events,  it  is  no  concern  of  theirs.  What- 
ever their  ancestors  were,  men  they  are;  and  I  ad- 
vise them  to  behave  as  such,  and  act  accordingly. 

[192] 


THE    WATER-BABIES 

But  let  them  recollect  this,  that  there  are  two  sides 
to  every  question,  and  a  downhill  as  well  as  an  up- 
hill road;  and,  if  I  can  turn  beasts  into  men,  I  can, 
by  the  same  laws  of  circumstances,  and  selection,  and 
competition,  turn  men  into  beasts.  You  were  very 
near  being  turned  into  a  beast  once  or  twice,  little 
Tom.  Indeed,  if  you  had  not  made  up  your  mind 
to  go  on  this  journey,  and  see  the  world,  like  an 
Englishman,  I  am  not  sure  but  that  you  would  have 
ended  as  an  eft  in  a  pond." 

"  Oh,  dear  me!  "  said  Tom;  "  sooner  than  that, 
and  be  all  over  slime,  I'll  go  this  minute,  if  it  is  to 
the  world's  end." 


[193] 


CHAPTER  VII 

"TV    T  OW,"  said  Tom,  "  I  am  ready  to  be  off,  if 
^^     it's  to  the  world's  end." 

"  Ah !  "  said  the  fairy,  "  that  is  a  brave, 
good  boy.  But  you  must  go  farther  than  the  world's 
end,  if  you  want  to  find  Mr.  Grimes ;  for  he  is  at  the 
Other-end-of-Nowhere.  You  must  go  to  Shiny 
Wall,  and  through  the  white  gate  that  never  was 
opened;  and  then  you  will  come  to  Peacepool,  and 
Mother  Carey's  Haven,  where  the  good  whales  go 
when  they  die.  And  there  Mother  Carey  will  tell 
you  the  way  to  the  Other-end-of-Nowhere,  and  there 
you  will  find  Mr.  Grimes." 

"  Oh,  dear !  "  said  Tom.    "  But  I  do  not  know  my 
way  to  Shiny  Wall,  or  where  it  is  at  all." 

"  Little  boys  must  take  the  trouble  to  find  out 

[  194] 


THE    WATER-BABIES 

things  for  themselves,  or  they  will  never  grow  to  be 
men;  so  that  you  must  ask  all  the  beasts  in  the  sea 
and  the  birds  in  the  air,  and  if  you  have  been  good 
to  them,  some  of  them  will  tell  you  the  way  to  Shiny 
Wall." 

"  Well,"  said  Tom,  "  it  will  be  a  long  journey,  so 
I  had  better  start  at  once.  Good-bye,  Miss  Ellie; 
you  know  I  am  getting  a  big  boy,  and  I  must  go  out 
and  see  the  world." 

"  I  know  you  must,"  said  Ellie;  "  but  you  will  not 
forget  me,  Tom.  I  shall  wait  here  till  you  come." 

And  she  shook  hands  with  him,  and  bade  him 
good-bye.  Tom  longed  very  much  again  to  kiss  her; 
but  he  thought  it  would  not  be  respectful,  considering 
she  was  a  lady  born;  so  he  promised  not  to  forget 
her:  but  his  little  whirl-about  of  a  head  was  so  full 
of  the  notion  of  going  out  to  see  the  world,  that  it 
forgot  her  in  five  minutes :  however,  though  his  head 
forgot  her,  I  am  glad  to  say  his  heart  did  not. 

So  he  asked  all  the  beasts  in  the  sea,  and  all  the 
birds  in  the  air,  but  none  of  them  knew  the  way  to 
Shiny  Wall.  For  why?  He  was  still  too  far  down 
south. 

Then  he  met  a  ship,  far  larger  than  he  had  ever 
seen — a  gallant  ocean-steamer,  with  a  long  cloud  of 
smoke  trailing  behind;  and  he  wondered  how  she 

[195] 


THE   WATER- BABIES 

went  on  without  sails,  and  swam  up  to  her  to  see. 
A  school  of  dolphins  were  running  races  round  and 
round  her,  going  three  feet  for  her  one,  and  Tom 
asked  them  the  way  to  Shiny  Wall :  but  they  did  not 
know.  Then  he  tried  to  find  out  how  she  moved, 
and  at  last  he  saw  her  screw,  and  was  so  delighted 
with  it  that  he  played  under  her  quarter  all  day,  till 
he  nearly  had  his  nose  knocked  off  by  the  fans,  and 
thought  it  time  to  move.  Then  he  watched  the 
sailors  upon  deck,  and  the  ladies,  with  their  bonnets 
and  parasols:  but  none  of  them  could  see  him,  be- 
cause their  eyes  were  not  opened — as,  indeed,  most 
people's  eyes  are  not. 

At  last  there  came  out  into  the  quarter-gallery  a 
very  pretty  lady,  in  deep  black  widow's  weeds,  and  in 
her  arms  a  baby.  She  leaned  over  the  quarter- 
gallery,  and  looked  back  and  back  toward  England 
far  away;  and  as  she  looked  she  sang: 

I. 

"  Soft  soft  wind,  from  out  the  sweet  south  sliding, 
Waft  thy  silver  cloud-webs  athwart  the  summer  sea; 

Thin  thin  threads  of  mist  on  dewy  fingers  twining 
Weave  a  veil  of  dappled  gauze  to  shade  my  babe 
and  me. 


THE    WATER-BABIES 

II. 

"  Deep  deep  Love,  within  thine  own  abyss  abiding, 
Pour  Thyself  abroad,  O  Lord,  on  earth  and  air  and 

sea; 
Worn    weary    hearts   within    Thy    holy    Temple 

hiding, 

Shield  from  sorrow,  sin,  and  shame  my  helpless  babe 
and  me." 

Her  voice  was  so  soft  and  low,  and  the  music  of 
the  air  so  sweet,  that  Tom  could  have  listened  to  it 
all  day.  But  as  she  held  the  baby  over  the  gallery 
rail,  to  show  it  the  dolphins  leaping  and  the  water 
gurgling  in  the  ship's  wake,  lo !  and  behold,  the  baby 
saw  Tom. 

He  was  quite  sure  of  that;  for  when  their  eyes 
met,  the  baby  smiled  and  held  out  his  hands;  and 
Tom  smiled  and  held  out  his  hands  too ;  and  the  baby 
kicked  and  leaped,  as  if  it  wanted  to  jump  overboard 
to  him. 

"What  do  you  see,  my  darling?"  said  the  lady; 
and  her  eyes  followed  the  baby's  till  she  too  caught 
sight  of  Tom,  swimming  about  among  the  foam- 
beads  below. 

She  gave  a  little  shriek  and  start;  and  then  she 

[197] 


THE    WATER-BABIES 


said,  quite  quietly, 
"  Babies  in  the  sea? 
Well,  perhaps  it  is  the 
happiest  place  for 
them ;  "  and  waved 
her  hand  to  Tom,  and 
cried,  "Wait  a  little, 
darling,  only  a  little: 
and  perhaps  we  shall 
go  with  you  and  be  at 
rest." 

And  at  that  an  old 
nurse,  all  in  b  1  a  c  k, 
came  out  and  talked  to 
her,  and  drew  her  in. 
And  Tom  turned 
away  northward,  sad 
and  wondering;  and 
watched  the  great 
steamer  slide  away 
into  the  dusk,  and  the 
lights  on  board  peep 
out  one  by  one,  and 
die  out  again,  and  the 
long  bar  of  smoke 
fade  away  into  the 


f  198] 


THE    WATER-BABIES 


evening   mist,   till    all 
was  out  of  sight. 

And  he  swam  north- 
ward again,  day  after 
day,  till  at  last  he  met 
the  King  of  the  Her- 
rings, with  a  curry- 
comb growing  out  of 
his  nose,  and  a  sprat 
in  his  mouth  for  a 
cigar,  and  asked  him 
the  way  to  Shiny 
Wall;  so  he  bolted  his 
sprat  head  foremost, 
and  said: 

"  If  I  were  you, 
young  gentleman,  I 
should  go  to  the 
Allalonestone,  and 
ask  the  last  of  the 
Gairfowl.  She  is  of 
a  very  ancient 
clan,  very  nearly  as 
ancient  as  my  own; 
and  knows  a  good  deal 
which  these  modern 


[199] 


THE   WATER-BABIES 

upstarts  don't,  as  ladies  of  old  houses  are  likely 
to  do." 

Tom  asked  his  way  to  her,  and  the  King  of  the 
Herrings  told  him  very  kindly,  for  he  was  a  courte- 
ous old  gentleman  of  the  old  school,  though  he  was 
horribly  ugly,  and  strangely  bedizened  too,  like  the 
old  dandies  who  lounge  in  the  club-house  windows. 

But  just  as  Tom  had  thanked  him  and  set  off,  he 
called  after  him:  "  Hi !  I  say,  can  you  fly?  " 

"  I  never  tried,"  says  Tom.     "  Why?  " 

"  Because,  if  you  can,  I  should  advise  you  to  say 
nothing  to  the  old  lady  about  it.  There ;  take  a  hint. 
Good-bye." 

And  away  Tom  went  for  seven  days  and  seven 
nights  due  north-west,  till  he  came  to  a  great  cod- 
bank,  the  like  of  which  he  never  saw  before.  The 
great  cod  lay  below  in  tens  of  thousands,  and  gobbled 
shell-fish  all  day  long;  and  the  blue  sharks  roved 
above  in  hundreds,  and  gobbled  them  when  they 
came  up.  So  they  ate,  and  ate,  and  ate  each  other, 
as  they  had  done  since  the  making  of  the  world;  for 
no  man  had  come  here  yet  to  catch  them,  and  find 
out  how  rich  old  Mother  Carey  is. 

And  there  he  saw  the  last  of  the  Gairfowl,  stand- 
ing up  on  the  Allalonestone,  all  alone.  And  a  very 
grand  old  lady  she  was,  full  three  feet  high,  and  bolt 
[  200  ] 


THE    WATER-BABIES 

upright,  like  some  old  Highland  chieftainess.  She 
had  on  a  black  velvet  gown,  and  a  white  pinner  and 
apron,  and  a  very  high  bridge  to  her  nose  (which 
is  a  sure  mark  of  high  breeding),  and  a  large  pair 
of  white  spectacles  on  it,  which  made  her  look  rather 
odd:  but  it  was  the  ancient  fashion  of  her  house. 

And  instead  of  wings,  she  had  two  little  feathery 
arms,  with  which  she  fanned  herself,  and  complained 
of  the  dreadful  heat;  and  she  kept  on  crooning  an 
old  song  to  herself,  which  she  learnt  when  she  was 
a  little  baby-bird,  long  ago — 

"  Two  little  birds  they  sat  on  a  stone, 
One  swam  away,  and  then  there  was  one, 
With  a  fal-lal-la-lady. 

"  The  other  swam  after,  and  then  there  was  none, 
And  so  the  poor  stone  was  left  all  alone; 
With  a  fal-lal-la-lady." 

It  was  "  flew  "  away,  properly,  and  not  "  swam  " 
away:  but,  as  she  could  not  fly,  she  had  a  right  to 
alter  it.  However,  it  was  a  very  fit  song  for  her  to 
sing,  because  she  was  a  lady  herself. 

Tom  came  up  to  her  very  humbly,  and  made  his 
bow;  and  the  first  thing  she  said  was — 

[201  ] 


THE    WATER- BABIES 

"  Have  you  wings?     Can  you  fly?  " 

"  Oh,  dear,  no,  ma'am;  I  should  not  think  of  such 
a  thing,"  said  cunning  little  Tom. 

"  Then  I  shall  have  great  pleasure  in  talking  to 
you,  my  dear.  It  is  quite  refreshing  nowadays  to 
see  anything  without  wings.  They  must  all  have 
wings,  forsooth,  now,  every  new  upstart  sort  of  bird, 
and  fly.  What  can  they  want  with  flying,  and  raising 
themselves  above  their  proper  station  in  life?  In 
the  days  of  my  ancestors  no  birds  ever  thought  of 
having  wings,  and  did  very  well  without;  and  now 
they  all  laugh  at  me  because  I  keep  to  the  good  old 
fashion.  Why,  the  very  marrocks  and  dovekies  have 
got  wings,  the  vulgar  creatures,  and  poor  little  ones 
enough  they  are;  and  my  own  cousins  too,  the  razor- 
bills, who  are  gentlefolk  born,  and  ought  to  know 
better  than  to  ape  their  inferiors." 

And  so  she  was  running  on,  while  Tom  tried  to 
get  in  a  word  edgeways;  and  at  last  he  did,  when  the 
old  lady  got  out  of  breath,  and  began  fanning  her- 
self again;  and  then  he  asked  if  she  knew  the  way 
to  Shiny  Wall. 

"  Shiny  Wall?  Who  should  know  better  than  I? 
We  all  came  from  Shiny  Wall,  thousands  of  years 
ago,  when  it  was  decently  cold,  and  the  climate  was 
fit  for  gentlefolk;  but  now,  what  with  the  heat,  and 

[  202  ] 


THE    WATER-BABIEG 

what  with  these  vulgar-winged  things  who  fly  up  and 
down  and  eat  everything,  so  that  gentlepeople's  hunt- 
ing is  all  spoilt,  and  one  really  cannot  get  one's 
living,  or  hardly  venture  off  the  rock  for  fear  of 
being  flown  against  by  some  creature  that  would  not 
have  dared  to  come  within  a  mile  of  one  a  thousand 
years  ago — what  was  I  saying?  Why,  we  have  quite 
gone  down  in  the  world,  my  dear,  and  have  nothing 
left  but  our  honour.  And  I  am  the  last  of  my  family. 
A  friend  of  mine  and  I  came  and  settled  on  this 
rock  when  we  were  young,  to  be  out  of  the  way  of 
low  people.  Once  we  were  a  great  nation,  and 
spread  over  all  the  Northern  Isles.  But  men  shot 
us  so,  and  knocked  us  on  the  head,  and  took  our 
eggs — why,  if  you  will  believe  it,  they  say  that  on 
the  coast  of  Labrador  the  sailors  used  to  lay  a  plank 
from  the  rock  on  board  the  thing  called  their  ship, 
and  drive  us  along  the  plank  by  hundreds,  till  we 
tumbled  down  into  the  ship's  waist  in  heaps;  and 
then,  I  suppose,  they  ate  us,  the  nasty  fellows! 
Well — but — what  was  I  saying?  At  last,  there  were 
none  of  us  left,  except  on  the  old  Gairfowlskerry, 
just  off  the  Iceland  coast,  up  which  no  man  could 
climb.  Even  there  we  had  no  peace;  for  one  day, 
when  I  was  quite  a  young  girl,  the  land  rocked,  and 
the  sea  boiled,  and  the  sky  grew  dark,  and  all  the 

[203] 


THE    WATER-BABIES 

air  was  filled  with  smoke  and  dust,  and  down  tumbled 
the  old  Gairfowlskerry  into  the  sea.  The  dovekies 
and  marrocks,  of  course,  all  flew  away;  but  we  were 
too  proud  to  do  that.  Some  of  us  were  dashed  to 
pieces,  and  some  drowned;  and  those  who  were  left 
got  away  to  Eldey,  and  the  dovekies  tell  me  they 
are  all  dead  now,  and  that  another  Gairfowlskerry 
has  risen  out  of  the  sea  close  to  the  old  one,  but  that 
it  is  such  a  poor  flat  place  that  it  is  not  safe  to  live 
on:  and  so  here  I  am  left  alone." 

This  was  the  Gairfowl's  story,  and,  strange  as  it 
may  seem,  it  is  every  word  of  it  true. 

"  If  you  only  had  had  wings  I  "  said  Tom;  "  then 
you  might  all  have  flown  away  too." 

"  Yes,  young  gentleman :  and  if  people  are  not 
gentlemen  and  ladies,  and  forget  that  noblesse  oblige, 
they  will  find  it  as  easy  to  get  on  in  the  world  as 
other  people  who  don't  care  what  they  do.  Why, 
if  I  had  not  recollected  that  noblesse  oblige,  I  should 
not  have  been  all  alone  now."  And  the  poor  old 
lady  sighed. 

"  How  was  that,  ma'am?  " 

"  Why,  my  dear,  a  gentleman  came  hither  with 
me,  and  after  we  had  been  here  some  time,  he 
wanted  to  marry — in  fact,  he  actually  proposed  to 
me.  Well,  I  can't  blame  him;  I  was  young,  and  very 

f  204! 


THE    WATER- BABIES 

handsome  then,  I  don't  deny:  but,  you  see,  I  could 
not  hear  of  such  a  thing,  because  he  was  my  deceased 
sister's  husband,  you  see?" 

"Of  course  not,  ma'am,"  said  Tom;  though,  of 
course,  he  knew  nothing  about  it.  "  She  was  very 
much  diseased,  I  suppose?" 

"  You  do  not  understand  me,  my  dear.  I  mean, 
that  being  a  lady,  and  with  right  and  honourable 
feelings,  as  our  house  always  has  had,  I  felt  it  my 
duty  to  snub  him,  and  howk  him,  and  peck  him  con- 
tinually, to  keep  him  at  his  proper  distance ;  and,  to 
tell  the  truth,  I  once  pecked  him  a  little  too  hard, 
poor  fellow,  and  he  tumbled  backwards  off  the  rock, 
and — really,  it  was  very  unfortunate,  but  it  was  not 
my  fault — a  shark  coming  by  saw  him  flapping,  and 
snapped  him  up.  And  since  then  I  have  lived  all 
alone 

'  With  a  fal-lal-la-lady.' 

And  soon  I  shall  be  gone,  my  little  dear,  and  nobody 
will  miss  me ;  and  then  the  poor  stone  will  be  left  all 
alone." 

"  But,  please,  which  is  the  way  to  Shiny  Wall?  " 
said  Tom. 

"  Oh,  you  must  go,  my  little  dear — you  must  go. 
[205] 


THE    WATER-BABIES 

Let  me  see — I  am  sure — that  is — really,  my  poor 
old  brains  are  getting  quite  puzzled.  Do  you  know, 
my  little  dear,  I  am  afraid,  if  you  want  to  know,  you 
must  ask  some  of  these  vulgar  birds  about,  for  I 
have  quite  forgotten." 

And  the  poor  old  Gairfowl  began  to  cry  tears  of 
pure  oil;  and  Tom  was  quite  sorry  for  her;  and  for 


himself  too,  for  he  was  at  his  wit's  end  whom  to 
ask. 

But  by  there  came  a  flock  of  petrels,  who  are 
Mother  Carey's  own  chickens;  and  Tom  thought 
them  much  prettier  than  Lady  Gairfowl,  and  so  per- 
haps they  were;  for  Mother  Carey  had  had  a  great 
deal  of  fresh  experience  between  the  time  that  she 
invented  the  Gairfowl  and  the  time  that  she  invented 
them.  They  flitted  along  like  a  flock  of  black  swal- 

[206] 


THE    WATER-BABIES 

lows,  and  hopped  and  skipped  from  wave  to  wave, 
lifting  up  their  little  feet  behind  them  so  daintily, 
and  whistling  to  each  other  so  tenderly,  that  Tom 
fell  in  love  with  them  at  once,  and  called  them  to 
know  the  way  to  Shiny  Wall. 

"  Shiny  Wall?  Do  you  want  Shiny  Wall?  Then 
come  with  us,  and  we  will  show  you.  We  are 
Mother  Carey's  own  chickens,  and  she  sends  us  out 
over  all  the  seas,  to  show  the  good  birds  the  way 
home." 

Tom  was  delighted,  and  swam  off  to  them,  after 
he  had  made  his  bow  to  the  Gairfowl.  But  she 
would  not  return  his  bow:  but  held  herself  bolt  up- 
right, and  wept  tears  of  oil  as  she  sang : 

"  And  so  the  poor  stone  was  left  all  alone; 
With  a  fal-lal-la-lady." 

But  she  was  wrong  there;  for  the  stone  was  not 
left  all  alone :  and  the  next  time  that  Tom  goes  by  it, 
he  will  see  a  sight  worth  seeing. 

The  old  Gairfowl  is  gone  already:  but  there  are 
better  things  come  in  her  place;  and  when  Tom 
comes  he  will  see  the  fishing-smacks  anchored  there 
in  hundreds,  from  Scotland,  and  from  Ireland,  and 
from  the  Orkneys,  and  the  Shetlands,  and  from  all 

[207] 


THE    WATER-BABIES 

the  Northern  ports,  full  of  the  children  of  the  old 
Norse  Vikings,  the  masters  of  the  sea.  And  the  men 
will  be  hauling  in  the  great  cod  by  thousands,  till 
their  hands  are  sore  from  the  lines;  and  they  will  be 
making  cod-liver  oil  and  guano,  and  salting  down  the 
fish;  and  there  will  be  a  man-of-war  steamer  there 
to  protect  them,  and  a  lighthouse  to  show  them  the 
way;  and  you  and  I,  perhaps,  shall  go  some  day  to 
the  Allalonestone  to  the  great  summer  sea-fair,  and 
dredge  strange  creatures  such  as  man  never  saw 
before;  and  we  shall  hear  the  sailors  boast  that  it 
is  not  the  worst  jewel  in  Queen  Victoria's  crown,  for 
there  are  eighty  miles  of  codbank,  and  food  for  all 
the  poor  folk  in  the  land.  That  is  what  Tom  will 
see,  and  perhaps  you  and  I  shall  see  it  too.  And 
then  we  shall  not  be  sorry,  because  we  cannot  get  a 
Gairfowl  to  stuff,  much  less  find  gairfowl  enough  to 
drive  them  into  stone  pens  and  slaughter  them,  as 
the  old  Norsemen  did,  or  drive  them  on  board  along 
a  plank  till  the  ship  was  victualled  with  them,  as  the 
old  English  and  French  rovers  used  to  do,  of  whom 
dear  old  Hakluyt  tells :  but  we  shall  remember  what 
Mr.  Tennyson  says  how 

"  The  old  order  changeth,  giving  place  to  the  new, 
And  God  fulfils  himself  in  many  ways" 
[208] 


THE    WATER-BABIES 

And  now  Tom  was  all  agog  to  start  for  Shiny 
Wall;  but  the  petrels  said  not.  They  must  go  first 
to  Allfowlsness,  and  wait  there  for  the  great  gather- 
ing of  all  the  sea-birds,  before  they  start  for  their 
summer  breeding-places  far  away  in  the  Northern 
Isles;  and  there  they  would  be  sure  to  find  some  birds 
which  were  going  to  Shiny  Wall :  but  where  Allfowls- 
ness was,  he  must  promise  never  to  tell,  lest  men 
should  go  there  and  shoot  the  birds,  and  stuff  them, 
and  put  them  into  stupid  museums,  instead  of  leaving 
them  to  play  and  breed  and  work  in  Mother  Carey's 
water-garden,  where  they  ought  to  be. 

So  where  Allfowlsness  is  nobody  must  know ;  and 
all  that  is  to  be  said  about  it  is,  that  Tom  waited 
there  many  days;  and  as  he  waited,  he  saw  a  very 
curious  sight.  On  the  rabbit  burrows  on  the  shore 
there  gathered  hundreds  and  hundreds  of  hoodie- 
crows,  such  as  you  see  in  Cambridgeshire.  And  they 
made  such  a  noise,  that  Tom  came  on  shore  and  went 
up  to  see  what  was  the  matter. 

And  there  he  found  them  holding  their  great 
caucus,  which  they  hold  every  year  in  the  North;  and 
all  their  stump-orators  were  speechifying;  and  for  a 
tribune,  the  speaker  stood  on  an  old  sheep's  skull. 

And  they  cawed  and  cawed,  and  boasted  of  all  the 
clever  things  they  had  done ;  how  many  lambs'  eyes 

[  209  ] 


THE    WATER-BABIES 

they  had  picked  out,  and  how  many  dead  bullocks 
they  had  eaten,  and  how  many  young  grouse  they 
had  swallowed  whole,  and  how  many  grouse-eggs 
they  had  flown  away  with,  stuck  on  the  point  of  their 
bills,  which  is  the  hoodie-crow's  particularly  clever 
feat,  of  which  he  is  as  proud  as  a  gipsy  is  of  doing 
the  hokanybaro;  and  what  that  is,  I  won't  tell 
you. 

And  at  last  they  brought  out  the  prettiest,  neatest 
young  lady-crow  that  ever  was  seen,  and  set  her  in 
the  middle,  and  all  began  abusing  and  vilifying,  and 
rating,  and  bullyragging  at  her,  because  she  had 
stolen  no  grouse-eggs,  and  had  actually  dared  to  say 
that  she  would  not  steal  any.  So  she  was  to  be  tried 
publicly  by  their  laws  (for  the  hoodies  always  try 
some  offenders  in  their  great  yearly  parliament). 
And  there  she  stood  in  the  middle,  in  her  black 
gown  and  gray  hood,  looking  as  meek  and  as  neat 
as  a  Quakeress,  and  they  all  bawled  at  her  at  once — 

And  it  was  in  vain  that  she  pleaded — 

That  she  did  not  like  grouse-eggs; 

That  she  could  get  her  living  very  well  without 

them; 
That  she  was  afraid  to  eat  them,  for  fear  of  the 

gamekeepers; 

f  210] 


THE    WATER-BABIES 

That  she  had  not  the  heart  to  eat  them,  because 
the  grouse  were  such  pretty,  kind,  jolly  birds; 
And  a  dozen  reasons  more. 

For  all  the  other  scaul-crows  set  upon  her,  and 
pecked  her  to  death  there  and  then,  before  Tom 
could  come  to  help  her;  and  then  flew  away,  very 
proud  of  what  they  had  done. 

Now,  was  not  this  a  scandalous  transaction? 

But  they  are  true  republicans,  these  hoodies,  who 
do  every  one  just  what  he  likes,  and  make  other 
people  do  so  too;  so  that,  for  any  freedom  of  speech, 
thought,  or  action,  which  is  allowed  among  them, 
they  might  as  well  be  American  citizens  of  the  new 
school. 

But  the  fairies  took  the  good  crow,  and  gave  her 
nine  new  sets  of  feathers  running,  and  turned  her  at 
last  into  the  most  beautiful  bird  of  paradise  with  a 
green  velvet  suit  and  a  long  tail,  and  sent  her  to  eat 
fruit  in  the  Spice  Islands,  where  cloves  and  nutmegs 
grow. 

And  Mrs.  Bedonebyasyoudid  settled  her  account 
with  the  wicked  hoodies.  For,  as  they  flew  away, 
what  should  they  find  but  a  nasty  dead  dog? — on 
which  they  all  set  to  work,  pecking  and  gobbling  and 
cawing  and  quarrelling  to  their  hearts'  content.  But 

[211] 


THE   WATER-BABIES 

the  moment  afterwards,  they  all  threw  up  their  bills 
into  the  air,  and  gave  one  screech;  and  then  turned 
head  over  heels  backward,  and  fell  down  dead,  one 
hundred  and  twenty-three  of  them  at  once.  For 
why?  The  fairy  had  told  the  gamekeeper  in  a 
dream,  to  fill  the  dead  dog  full  of  strychnine ;  and  so 
he  did. 

And  after  a  while  the  birds  began  to  gather  at 
Allfowlsness,  in  thousands  and  tens  of  thousands, 
blackening  all  the  air;  swans  and  brant  geese,  harle- 
quins and  eiders,  harolds  and  garganeys,  smews  and 
gossanders,  divers  and  loons,  grebes  and  dovekies, 
auks  and  razor-bills,  gannets  and  petrels,  skuas  and 
terns,  with  gulls  beyond  all  naming  or  numbering; 
and  they  paddled  and  washed  and  splashed  and 
combed  and  brushed  themselves  on  the  sand,  till  the 
shore  was  white  with  feathers;  and  they  quacked  and 
clucked  and  gabbled  and  chattered  and  screamed  and 
whooped  as  they  talked  over  matters  with  their 
friends,  and  settled  where  they  were  to  go  and  breed 
that  summer,  till  you  might  have  heard  them  ten 
miles  off;  and  lucky  it  was  for  them  that  there  was 
no  one  to  hear  them  but  the  old  keeper,  who  lived 
all  alone  upon  the  Ness,  in  a  turf  hut  thatched  with 
heather  and  fringed  round  with  great  stones  slung 
across  the  roof  by  bent-ropes,  lest  the  winter  gales 
[212] 


THE    WATER-BABIES 

should  blow  the  hut  right  away.  But  he  never 
minded  the  birds  nor  hurt  them,  because  they  were 
not  in  season;  indeed,  he  minded  but  two  things  in 
the  whole  world,  and  those  were,  his  Bible  and  his 
grouse;  for  he  was  as  good  an  old  Scotchman  as  ever 
knit  stockings  on  a  winter's  night:  only,  when  all 
the  birds  were  going,  he  toddled  out,  and  took  off 
his  cap  to  them,  and  wished  them  a  merry  journey 
and  a  safe  return;  and  then  gathered  up  all  the 
feathers  which  they  had  left,  and  cleaned  them  to 
sell  down  south,  and  make  feather-beds  for  stuffy 
people  to  lie  on. 

Then  the  petrels  asked  this  bird  and  that  whether 
they  would  take  Tom  to  Shiny  Wall :  but  one  set  was 
going  to  Sutherland,  and  one  to  the  Shetlands,  and 
one  to  Norway,  and  one  to  Spitzbergen,  and  one  to 
Iceland,  and  one  to  Greenland :  but  none  would  go  to 
Shiny  Wall.  So  the  good-natured  petrels  said  that 
they  would  show  him  part  of  the  way  themselves,  but 
they  were  only  going  as  far  as  Jan  Mayen's  Land; 
and  after  that  he  must  shift  for  himself. 

And  then  all  the  birds  rose  up,  and  streamed  away 
in  long  black  lines,  north,  and  north-east,  and  north* 
west,  across  the  bright  blue  summer  sky;  and  their 
cry  was  like  ten  thousand  packs  of  hounds,  and  ten 
thousand  peals  of  bells.  Only  the  puffins  stayed  be~ 

[213] 


THE   WATER-BABIES 

hind,  and  killed  the  young  rabbits,  and  laid  their 
eggs  in  the  rabbit-burrows;  which  was  rough  practice, 
certainly;  but  a  man  must  see  to  his  own  family. 

And,  as  Tom  and  the  petrels  went  north-eastward, 
it  began  to  blow  right  hard;  for  the  old  gentleman  in 
the  gray  great-coat,  who  looks  after  the  big  copper 
boiler,  in  the  Gulf  of  Mexico,  had  got  behindhand 
with  his  work;  so  Mother  Carey  had  sent  an  electric 
message  to  him  for  more  steam ;  and  now  the  steam 
was  coming,  as  much  in  an  hour  as  ought  to  have 
come  in  a  week,  puffing  and  roaring  and  swishing  and 
swirling,  till  you  could  not  see  where  the  sky  ended 
and  the  sea  began.  But  Tom  and  the  petrels  never 
cared,  for  the  gale  was  right  abaft,  and  away  they 
went  over  the  crests  of  the  billows,  as  merry  as  so 
many  flying-fish. 

And  at  last  they  saw  an  ugly  sight — the  black 
side  of  a  great  ship,  water-logged  in  the  trough  of 
the  sea.  Her  funnel  and  her  masts  were  overboard, 
and  swayed  and  surged  under  her  lee ;  her  decks  were 
swept  as  clean  as  a  barn  floor,  and  there  was  no 
living  soul  on  board. 

The  petrels  flew  up  to  her,  and  wailed  round  her; 
for  they  were  very  sorry  indeed,  and  also  they  ex- 
pected to  find  some  salt  pork;  and  Tom  scrambled  on 
board  of  her  and  looked  round,  frightened  and  sad. 

[214] 


THE    WATER-BABIES 

And  there,  in  a  little 

cot,    lashed   tight   under         ( 

\ 
the  bulwark,  lay  a  baby  p — s( 

fast     asleep;     the     very  v*»^-- ^ 
same  baby,  Tom  saw  at 
once,  which  he  had  seen  in  the  singing 
lady's  arms. 

He  went  up  to  it,  and  wanted  to 
wake  it;  but  behold,  from  under  the 
cot  out  jumped  a  little  black  and  tan 
terrier  dog,  and  began  barking  and 
snapping  at  Tom,  and  would  not  let 
him  touch  the  cot. 

Tom  knew  the  dog's  teeth  could 
not  hurt  him:  but  at  least  it  could 
shove  him  away,  and  did;  and  he  and 
the  dog  fought  and  struggled,  for  he 
wanted  to  help  the  baby,  and  did  not 
want  to  throw  the  poor  dog  over- 
board: but  as  they  were  struggling, 
there  came  a  tall  green  sea,  and 
walked  in  over  the  weather  side  of 
the  ship,  and  swept  them  all  into  the 
waves. 

"Oh,  the  baby,  the  baby!" 
screamed  Tom :  but  the  next  moment 


THE   WATER-BABIES 

he  did  not  scream  at  all;  for  he  saw  the  cot  settling 
down  through  the  green  water,  with  the  baby,  smil- 
ing in  it,  fast  asleep;  and  he  saw  the  fairies  come 
up  from  below,  and  carry  baby  and  cradle  gently 
down  in  their  soft  arms;  and  then  he  knew  it  was 
all  right,  and  that  there  would  be  a  new  water-baby 
in  St.  Brandan's  Isle. 

And  the  poor  little  dog? 

Why,  after  he  had  kicked  and  coughed  a  little,  he 
sneezed  so  hard,  that  he  sneezed  himself  clean  out 
of  his  skin,  and  turned  into  a  water-dog,  and  jumped 
and  danced  round  Tom,  and  ran  over  the  crests  of 
the  waves,  and  snapped  at  the  jelly-fish  and  the 
mackerel,  and  followed  Tom  the  whole  way  to  the 
Other-end-of-Nowhere. 

Then  they  went  on  again,  till  they  began  to  see 
the  peak  of  Jan  Mayen's  Land,  standing  up  like  a 
white  sugar-loaf,  two  miles  above  the  clouds. 

And  there  they  fell  in  with  a  whole  flock  of  molly- 
mocks,  who  were  feeding  on  a  dead  whale. 

"  These  are  the  fellows  to  show  you  the  way," 
said  Mother  Carey's  chickens;  "  we  cannot  help  you 
farther  north.  We  don't  like  to  get  among  the  ice 
pack,  for  fear  it  should  nip  our  toes :  but  the  mollys 
dare  fly  anywhere." 

So  the  petrels  called  to  the  mollys :  but  they  were 
so  busy  and  greedy,  gobbling  and  pecking  and  splut- 
[216] 


THE    WATER- BABIES 

taring  and  fighting  over  the  blubber,  that  they  did 
not  take  the  least  notice. 

"  Come,  come,"  said  the  petrels,  "  you  lazy  greedy 
lubbers,  this  young  gentleman  is  going  to  Mother 
Carey,  and  if  you  don't  attend  on  him,  you  won't 
earn  your  discharge  from  her,  you  know." 

"  Greedy  we  are,"  says  a  great  fat  old  molly, 
"but  lazy  we  ain't;  and,  as  for  lubbers,  we're  no 
more  lubbers  than  you.  Let's  have  a  look  at  the 
lad." 

And  he  flapped  right  into  Tom's  face,  and  stared 
at  him  in  the  most  impudent  way  (for  the  mollys  are 
audacious  fellows,  as  all  whalers  know),  and  then 
asked  him  where  he  hailed  from,  and  what  land  he 
sighted  last. 

And,  when  Tom  told  him,  he  seemed  pleased,  and 
said  he  was  a  good  plucked  one  to  have  got  so  far. 

"  Come  along,  lads,"  he  said  to  the  rest,  "  and 
give  this  little  chap  a  cast  over  the  pack,  for  Mother 
Carey's  sake.  We've  eaten  blubber  enough  for  to- 
day, and  we'll  e'en  work  out  a  bit  of  our  time  by 
helping  the  lad." 

So  the  mollys  took  Tom  up  on  their  backs,  and 
flew  off  with  him,  laughing  and  joking — and  oh,  how 
they  did  smell  of  train  oil ! 

"  Who  are  you,  you  jolly  birds?  "  asked  Tom. 
[217] 


THE    WATKK-BABIES 

"  We  are  the  spirits  of  the  old  Greenland  skippers 
(as  every  sailor  knows),  who  hunted  here,  right 
whales  and  horse-whales,  full  hundreds  of  years 
agone.  But,  because  we  were  saucy  and  greedy,  we 
were  all  turned  into  mollys,  to  eat  whale's  blubber 
all  our  days.  But  lubbers  we  are  none,  and  could 
sail  a  ship  now  against  any  man  in  the  North  seas, 
though  we  don't  hold  with  this  new-fangled  steam. 
And  it's  a  shame  of  those  black  imps  of  petrels  to 
call  us  so;  but  because  they're  her  grace's  pets,  they 
think  they  may  say  anything  they  like." 

"  And  who  are  you?  "  asked  Tom  of  him,  for  he 
saw  that  he  was  the  king  of  all  the  birds. 

"  My  name  is  Hendrick  Hudson,  and  a  right  good 
skipper  was  I ;  and  my  name  will  last  to  the  world's 
end,  in  spite  of  all  the  wrong  I  did.  For  I  dis- 
covered Hudson  River  and  I  named  Hudson's  Bay; 
and  many  have  come  in  my  wake  that  dared  not  have 
shown  me  the  way.  But  I  was  a  hard  man  in  my 
time,  that's  truth,  and  stole  the  poor  Indians  off 
the  coast  of  Maine,  and  sold  them  for  slaves  down 
in  Virginia ;  and  at  last  I  was  so  cruel  to  my  sailors, 
here  in  these  very  seas,  that  they  set  me  adrift  in  an 
open  boat,  and  I  never  was  heard  of  more.  So  now 
I'm  the  king  of  all  mollys,  till  I've  worked  out  my 
time." 

[218] 


THE    WATER- BABIES 

And  now  they  came  to  the  edge  of  the  pack,  and 
beyond  it  they  could  see  Shiny  Wall  looming, 
through  mist,  and  snow,  and  storm.  But  the  pack 
rolled  horribly  upon  the  swell,  and  the  ice  giants 
fought  and  roared,  and  leapt  upon  each  other's 
backs,  and  ground  each  other  to  powder,  so  that 
Tom  was  afraid  to  venture  among  them,  lest  he 
should  be  ground  to  powder  too.  And  he  was  the 
more  afraid,  when  he  saw  lying  among  the  ice  pack 
the  wrecks  of  many  a  gallant  ship ;  some  with  masts 
and  yards  all  standing,  some  with  the  seamen  frozen 
fast  on  board.  Alas,  alas,  for  them!  They  were 
all  true  English  hearts;  and  they  came  to  their  end 
like  good  knights-errant,  in  searching  for  the  white 
gate  that  never  was  opened  yet. 

But  the  good  mollys  took  Tom  and  his  dog  up, 
and  flew  with  them  safe  over  the  pack  and  the  roar- 
ing ice  giants,  and  set  them  down  at  the  foot  of  Shiny 
Wall. 

"  And  where  is  the  gate  ?  "  asked  Tom. 

"  There  is  no  gate,"  said  the  mollys. 

"  No  gate  ?  "  cried  Tom,  aghast. 

"  None ;  never  a  crack  of  one,  and  that's  the  whole 
of  the  secret,  as  better  fellows,  lad,  than  you  have 
found  to  their  cost;  and  if  there  had  been,  they'd 

[219] 


THE    WATER-BABIES 

have  killed  by  now  every  right  whale  that  swims  the 
seas." 

"  What  am  I  to  do,  then  ?  " 

"  Dive  under  the  floe,  to  be  sure,  if  you  have 
pluck." 

"  I've  not  come  so  far  to  turn  now,"  said  Tom; 
"  so  here  goes  for  a  header." 

"A  lucky  voyage  to  you,  lad,"  said  the  mollys; 
"  we  knew  you  were  one  of  the  right  sort.  So  good- 
bye." 

u  Why  don't  you  come  too  ?  "  asked  Tom. 

But  the  mollys  only  wailed  sadly,  "  We  can't  go 
yet,  we  can't  go  yet,"  and  flew  away  over  the  pack. 

So  Tom  dived  under  the  great  white  gate  which 
never  was  opened  yet,  and  went  on  in  black  darkness, 
at  the  bottom  of  the  sea,  for  seven  days  and  seven 
nights.  And  yet  he  was  not  a  bit  frightened.  Why 
should  he  be?  He  was  a  brave  English  lad,  whose 
business  is  to  go  out  and  see  all  the  world. 

And  at  last  he  saw  the  light,  and  clear  clear  water 
overhead;  and  up  he  came  a  thousand  fathoms, 
among  clouds  of  sea-moths,  which  fluttered  round 
his  head.  There  were  moths  with  pink  heads  and 
wings  and  opal  bodies,  that  flapped  about  slowly; 
moths  with  brown  wings  that  flapped  about  quickly; 
yellow  shrimps  that  hopped  and  skipped  most  quickly 

[  220  1 


THE    WATER- BABIES 

of  all;  and  jellies  of  all  the  colours  in  the  world,  that 
neither  hopped  nor  skipped,  but  only  dawdled  and 
yawned,  and  would  not  get  out  of  his  way.  The  dog 
snapped  at  them  till  his  jaws  were  tired;  but  Tom 
hardly  minded  them  at  all,  he  was  so  eager  to  get 
to  the  top  of  the  water,  and  see  the  pool  where  the 
good  whales  go. 

And  a  very  large  pool  it  was,  miles  and  miles 
across,  though  the  air  was  so  clear  that  the  ice  cliffs 
on  the  opposite  side  looked  as  if  they  were  close  at 
hand.  All  round  it  the  ice  cliffs  rose,  in  walls  and 
spires  and  battlements,  and  caves  and  bridges,  and 
stories  and  galleries,  in  which  the  ice-fairies  live, 
and  drive  away  the  storms  and  clouds,  that  Mother 
Carey's  pool  may  lie  calm  from  year's  end  to  year's 
end.  And  the  sun  acted  policeman,  and  walked 
round  outside  every  day,  peeping  just  over  the  top 
of  the  ice  wall,  to  see  that  all  went  right;  and  now 
and  then  he  played  conjuring  tricks,  or  had  an  ex- 
hibition of  fireworks,  to  amuse  the  ice-fairies.  For 
he  would  make  himself  into  four  or  five  suns  at 
once,  or  paint  the  sky  with  rings  and  crosses  and 
crescents  of  white  fire,  and  stick  himself  in  the  mid- 
dle of  them,  and  wink  at  the  fairies;  and  I  daresay 
they  were  very  much  amused;  for  anything's  fun  in 
the  country. 

[221  1 


THE    WATER-BABIES 

And  there  the  good  whales  lay,  the  happy  sleepy 
beasts,  upon  the  still  oily  sea.  They  were  all  right 
whales,  you  must  know,  and  finners,  and  razor-backs, 
and  bottle-noses,  and  spotted  sea-unicorns  with  long 
ivory  horns.  But  the  sperm  whales  are  such  raging, 


ramping,  roaring,  rumbustious  fellows,  that,  if 
Mother  Carey  let  them  in,  there  would  be  no  more 
peace  in  Peacepool.  So  she  packs  them  away  in  a 
great  pond  by  themselves  at  the  South  Pole,  two  hun- 
dred and  sixty-three  miles  south-south-east  of  Mount 
Erebus,  the  great  volcano  in  the  ice;  and  there  they 
butt  each  other  with  their  ugly  noses,  day  and  night 
from  year's  end  to  year's  end. 

But  here  there  were  only  good  quiet  beasts,  lying 
about  like  the  black  hulls  of  sloops,  and  blowing 
every  now  and  then  jets  of  white  steam,  or  sculling 
round  with  their  huge  mouths  open,  for  the  sea- 
moths  to  swim  down  their  throats.  There  were  no 
[  222  ] 


THE    WATER-BABIES 

threshers  there  to  thresh  their  poor  old  backs,  or 
sword-fish  to  stab  their  stomachs,  or  saw-fish  to  rip 
them  up,  or  ice-sharks  to  bite  lumps  out  of  their 
sides,  or  whalers  to  harpoon  and  lance  them.  They 
were  quite  safe  and  happy  there;  and  all  they  had 
to  do  was  to  wait  quietly  in  Peacepool,  till  Mother 
Carey  sent  for  them  to  make  them  out  of  old  beasts 
into  new. 

Tom  swam  up  to  the  nearest  whale,  and  asked  the 
way  to  Mother  Carey. 

"  There  she  sits  in  the  middle,"  said  the  whale. 

Tom  looked;  but  he  could  see  nothing  in  the 
middle  of  the  pool,  but  one  peaked  iceberg;  and  he 
said  so. 

"  That's  Mother  Carey,"  said  the  whale,  "  as  you 
will  find  when  you  get  to  her.  There  she  sits  making 
old  beasts  into  new  all  the  year  round." 

"  How  does  she  do  that?  " 

"  That's  her  concern,  not  mine,"  said  the  old 
whale;  and  yawned  so  wide  (for  he  was  very  large) 
that  there  swam  into  his  mouth  943  sea-moths,  13,- 
846  jelly-fish  no  bigger  than  pins'  heads,  a  string  of 
salpse  nine  yards  long,  and  forty-three  little  ice-crabs, 
who  gave  each  other  a  parting  pinch  all  round, 
tucked  their  legs  under  their  stomachs,  and  deter- 
mined to  die  decently,  like  Julius  Caesar. 

[223  1 


THE    WATER-BABIES 

"  I  suppose,"  said  Tom,  "  she  cuts  up  a  great 
whale  like  you  into  a  whole  shoal  of  porpoises?  " 

At  which  the  old  whale  laughed  so  violently  that 
he  coughed  up  all  the  creatures;  who  swam  away 
again  very  thankful  at  having  escaped  out  of  that 
terrible  whalebone  net  of  his,  from  which  bourne  no 
traveller  returns;  and  Tom  went  on  to  the  iceberg, 
wondering. 

And,  when  he  came  near  it,  it  took  the  form  of  the 
grandest  old  lady  he  had  ever  seen — a  white  marble 
lady,  sitting  on  a  white  marble  throne.  And  from 
the  foot  of  the  throne  there  swum  away,  out  and  out 
into  the  sea,  millions  of  new-born  creatures,  of  more 
shapes  and  colours  than  man  ever  dreamed.  And 
they  were  Mother  Carey's  children,  whom  she  makes 
out  of  the  sea-water  all  day  long. 

He  expected,  of  course — like  some  grown  people 
who  ought  to  know  better — to  find  her  snipping, 
piecing,  fitting,  stitching,  cobbling,  basting,  filing, 
planing,  hammering,  turning,  polishing,  moulding, 
measuring,  chiselling,  clipping,  and  so  forth,  as  men 
do  when  they  go  to  work  to  make  anything. 

But,  instead  of  that,  she  sat  quite  still  with  her 
chin  upon  her  hand,  looking  down  into  the  sea  with 
two  great  grand  blue  eyes,  as  blue  as  the  sea  itself. 
Her  hair  was  as  white  as  the  snow — for  she  was 

[224! 


THE    WATER-BABIES 

very  very  old — in  fact,  as  old  as  anything  which  you 
are  likely  to  come  across,  except  the  difference  be- 
tween right  and  wrong. 

And,  when  she  saw  Tom,  she  looked  at  him  very 
kindly. 

"What  do  you  want,  my  little  man?  It  is  long 
since  I  have  seen  a  water-baby  here." 

Tom  told  her  his  errand,  and  asked  the  way  to  the 
Other-end-of-Nowhere. 

"  You  ought  to  know  yourself,  for  you  have  been 
there  already." 

"Have  I,  ma'am?  I'm  sure  I  forget  all 
about  it." 

"  Then  look  at  me."  And,  as  Tom  looked  into 
her  great  blue  eyes,  he  recollected  the  way  perfectly. 

Now,  was  not  that  strange? 

"  Thank  you,  ma'am,"  said  Tom.  "  Then  I  won't 
trouble  your  ladyship  any  more ;  I  hear  you  are  very 
busy." 

"  I  am  never  more  busy  than  I  am  now,"  she 
said,  without  stirring  a  finger. 

"  I  heard,  ma'am,  that  you  were  always  making 
new  beasts  out  of  old." 

"  So  people  fancy.  But  I  am  not  going  to  trouble 
myself  to  make  things,  my  little  dear.  I  sit  here  and 
make  them  make  themselves." 

[225] 


THE    WATER-BABIES 

"  You  are  a  clever  fairy,  indeed,"  thought  Tom, 
And  he  was  quite  right. 

That  is  a  grand  trick  of  good  old  Mother  Carey's, 
and  a  grand  answer,  which  she  has  had  occasion  to 
make  several  times  to  impertinent  people. 

There  was  once,  for  instance,  a  fairy  who  was  so 
clever  that  she  found  out  how  to  make  butterflies.  I 
don't  mean  sham  ones;  no:  but  real  live  ones,  which 
would  fly,  and  eat,  and  lay  eggs,  and  do  everything 
that  they  ought ;  and  she  was  so  proud  of  her  skill  that 
she  went  flying  straight  off  to  the  North  Pole,  to  boast 
to  Mother  Carey  how  she  could  make  butterflies. 

But  Mother  Carey  laughed. 

"  Know,  silly  child,"  she  said,  "  that  any  one  can 
make  things,  if  they  will  take  time  and  trouble 
enough:  but  it  is  not  every  one  who,  like  me,  can 
make  things  make  themselves." 

But  people  do  not  yet  believe  that  Mother  Carey 
is  as  clever  as  all  that  comes  to;  and  they  will  not 
till  they,  too,  go  the  journey  to  the  Other-end-of- 
Nowhere. 

"  And  now,  my  pretty  little  man,"  said  Mother 
Carey,  "  you  are  sure  you  know  the  way  to  the 
Other-end-of-Nowhere  ?  " 

Tom  thought;  and  behold,  he  had  forgotten  it 
utterly. 

[226! 


THE    WATER- BABIES 

"  That  is  because  you  took  your  eyes  off  me." 

Tom  looked  at  her  again,  and  recollected;  and 
then  looked  away,  and  forgot  in  an  instant. 

"  But  what  am  I  to  do,  ma'am?  For  I  can't  keep 
looking  at  you  when  I  am  somewhere  else." 

"  You  must  do  without  me,  as  most  people  have 
to  do,  for  nine  hundred  and  ninety-nine  thousandths 
of  their  lives;  and  look  at  the  dog  instead;  for  he 
knows  the  way  well  enough,  and  will  not  forget  it. 
Besides,  you  may  meet  some  very  queer-tempered, 
people  there,  who  will  not  let  you  pass  without  this 
passport  of  mine,  which  you  must  hang  round  your 
neck  and  take  care  of;  and,  of  course,  as  the  dog 
will  always  go  behind  you,  you  must  go  the  whole 
way  backward." 

"  Backward!  "  cried  Tom.  "  Then  I  shall  not  be 
able  to  see  my  way." 

"  On  the  contrary,  if  you  look  forward,  you  will 
not  see  a  step  before  you,  and  be  certain  to  go 
wrong;  but,  if  you  look  behind  you,  and  watch  care- 
fully whatever  you  have  passed,  and  especially  keep 
your  eye  on  the  dog,  who  goes  by  instinct,  and  there- 
fore can't  go  wrong,  then  you  will  know  what  is  com- 
ing next,  as  plainly  as  if  you  saw  it  in  a  looking- 
glass." 

Tom  was  very  much  astonished:  but  he  obeyed 
[227] 


THE   WATER-BABIES 

her,  for  he  had  learnt  always  to  believe  what  the 
fairies  told  him. 

He  was  very  sorely  tried;  for  though,  by  keeping 
the  dog  to  heels  (or  rather  to  toes,  for  he  had  to 
walk  backward) ,  he  could  see  pretty  well  which  way 
the  dog  was  hunting,  yet  it  was  much  slower  work 
to  go  backwards  than  to  go  forwards.  But,  what 
was  more  trying  still,  no  sooner  had  he  got  out  of 
Peacepool,  than  there  came  running  to  him  all  the 
conjurors,  fortune-tellers,  astrologers,  prophesiers, 
projectors,  prestigiators,  as  many  as  were  in  those 
parts  (and  there  are  too  many  of  them  everywhere) , 
all  bawling  and  screaming  at  him,  "  Look  a-head, 
only  look  a-head;  and  we  will  show  you  what  man 
never  saw  before,  and  right  away  to  the  end  of  the 
world!" 

But  I  am  proud  to  say  that  Tom  was  such  a  little 
dogged,  hard,  gnarly,  foursquare  brick  of  an  English 
boy,  that  he  never  turned  his  head  round  once  all  the 
way  from  Peacepool  to  the  Other-end-of-Nowhere : 
but  kept  his  eye  on  the  dog,  and  let  him  pick  out  the 
scent,  hot  or  cold,  straight  or  crooked,  wet  or  dry, 
up  hill  or  down  dale ;  by  which  means  he  never  made 
a  single  mistake,  and  saw  all  the  wonderful  and 
hitherto  by-no-mortal-man-imagined  things,  which  it 
is  my  duty  to  relate  to  you  in  the  next  chapter. 

f  228  ] 


CHAPTER  VIII  AND  LAST 

HERE  begins  the  never-to-be-too-much-studied 
account    of    the    nine-hundred-and-ninety- 
ninth  part  of  the  wonderful  things  which 
Tom  saw  on  his  journey  to  the  Other-end-of-No- 
where;  which  all  good  little  children  are  requested 
to  read;  that,  if  ever  they  get  to  the  Other-end-of- 
Nowhere,  as  they  may  very  probably  do,  they  may 
not  burst  out  laughing,  or  try  to  run  away,  or  do  any 
other  silly  vulgar  thing  which  may  offend  Mrs.  Be- 
donebyasyoudid. 

Now,  as  soon  as  Tom  had  left  Peacepool,  he  came 
to  the  white  lap  of  the  great  sea-mother,  ten  thou- 
sand fathoms  deep;  where  she  makes  world-pap  all 
day  long,  for  the  steam-giants  to  knead,  and  the  fire- 

[  229  ] 


THE    WATER- BABIES 

giants  to  bake,  till  it  has  risen  and  hardened  into 
mountain-loaves  and  island-cakes. 

And  there  Tom  was  very  near  being  kneaded  up 
in  the  world-pap,  and  turned  into  a  fossil  water- 
baby;  which  would  have  astonished  the  Geological 
Society  of  New  Zealand  some  hundreds  of  thousands 
of  years  hence. 

For,  as  he  walked  along  in  the  silence  of  the  sea- 
twilight,  on  the  soft  white  ocean  floor,  he  was  aware 
of  a  hissing,  and  a  roaring,  and  a  thumping,  and  a 
pumping,  as  of  all  the  steam-engines  in  the  world  at 
once.  And,  when  he  came  near,  the  water  grew  boil- 
ing-hot; not  that  that  hurt  him  in  the  least:  but  it 
also  grew  as  foul  as  gruel;  and  every  moment  he 
stumbled  over  dead  shells,  and  fish,  and  sharks,  and 
seals,  and  whales,  which  had  been  killed  by  the  hot 
water. 

And  at  last  he  came  to  the  great  sea-serpent  him- 
self, lying  dead  at  the  bottom;  and  as  he  was  too 
thick  to  scramble  over,  Tom  had  to  walk  round  him 
three-quarters  of  a  mile  and  more,  which  put  him 
out  of  his  path  sadly;  and,  when  he  had  got  round, 
he  came  to  the  place  called  Stop.  And  there  he 
stopped,  and  just  in  time. 

For  he  was  on  the  edge  of  a  vast  hole  in  the  bot- 
tom of  the  sea,  up  which  was  rushing  and  roaring 

[230] 


THE    WATER- BABIES 

clear  steam  enough  to  work,  all  the  engines  in  the 
world  at  once;  so  clear,  indeed,  that  it  was  quite 
light  at  moments;  and  Tom  could  see  almost  up  to 
the  top  of  the  water  above,  and  down  below  into  the 
pit  for  nobody  knows  how  far. 

But,  as  soon  as  he  bent  his  head  over  the  edge,  he 
got  such  a  rap  on  the  nose  from  pebbles,  that  he 
jumped  back  again;  for  the  steam,  as  it  rushed  up, 
rasped  away  the  sides  of  the  hole,  and  hurled  it  up 
into  the  sea  in  a  shower  of  mud  and  gravel  and 
ashes;  and  then  it  spread  all  around,  and  sank  again 
and  covered  in  the  dead  fish  so  fast,  that  before  Tom 
had  stood  there  five  minutes  he  was  buried  in  silt  up 
to  his  ankles,  and  began  to  be  afraid  that  he  should 
have  been  buried  alive. 

And  perhaps  he  would  have  been,  but  that  while 
he  was  thinking,  the  whole  piece  of  ground  on  which 
he  stood  was  torn  off  and  blown  upwards,  and  away 
flew  Tom  a  mile  up  through  the  sea,  wondering  what 
was  coming  next. 

At  last  he  stopped — thump !  and  found  himself 
tight  in  the  legs  of  the  most  wonderful  bogy  which 
he  had  ever  seen. 

It  had  I  don't  know  how  many  wings,  as  big  as  the 
sails  of  a  windmill,  and  spread  out  in  a  ring  like 
them;  and  with  them  it  hovered  over  the  steam  which 

[231  ] 


THE    WATER-BABIES 

rushed  up,  as  a  ball  hovers  over  the  top  of  a  foun- 
tain. And  for  every  wing  above  it  had  a  leg  below, 
with  a  claw  like  a  comb  at  the  tip,  and  a  nostril  at  the 
root;  and  in  the  middle  it  had  no  stomach  and  one 
eye;  and  as  for  its  mouth,  that  was  all  on  one  side,  as 
the  madre-poriform  tubercle  in  a  star-fish  is.  Well, 
it  was  a  very  strange  beast;  but  no  stranger  than 
some  dozens  which  you  may  see. 

"  What  do  you  want  here,"  it  cried  quite  peevishly, 
"getting  in  my  way?"  and  it  tried  to  drop  Tom: 
but  he  held  on  tight  to  its  claws,  thinking  himself 
safer  where  he  was. 

So  Tom  told  him  who  he  was,  and  what  his  errand 
was.  And  the  thing  winked  its  one  eye,  and  sneered : 

"  I  am  too  old  to  be  taken  in  in  that  way.  You 
are  come  after  gold — I  know  you  are." 

"  Gold!  What  is  gold?  "  And  really  Tom  did 
not  know;  but  the  suspicious  old  bogy  would  not 
believe  him. 

But  after  a  while  Tom  began  to  understand  a 
little.  For,  as  the  vapours  came  up  out  of  the  hole, 
the  bogy  smelt  them  with  his  nostrils,  and  combed 
them  and  sorted  them  with  his  combs;  and  then, 
when  they  steamed  up  through  them  against  his 
wings,  they  were  changed  into  showers  and  streams 
of  metal.  From  one  wing  fell  gold-dust,  and  from 

[232] 


THE    WATER- BABIES 

another  silver,  and  from  another  copper,  and  from 
another  tin,  and  from  another  lead,  and  so  on,  and 
sank  into  the  soft  mud,  into  veins  and  cracks,  and 
hardened  there.  Whereby  it  comes  to  pass  that  the 
rocks  are  full  of  metal. 

But,  all  of  a  sudden,  somebody  shut  off  the  steam 
below,  and  the  hole  was  left  empty  in  an  instant: 
and  then  down  rushed  the  water  into  the  hole,  in  such 
a  whirlpool  that  the  bogy  spun  round  and  round  as 
fast  as  a  teetotum.  But  that  was  all  in  his  day's 
work,  like  a  fair  fall  with  the  hounds;  so  all  he  did 
was  to  say  to  Tom — 

"  Now  is  your  time,  youngster,  to  get  down,  if  you 
are  in  earnest,  which  I  don't  believe." 

"  You'll  soon  see,"  said  Tom;  and  away  he  went, 
as  bold  as  Baron  Munchausen,  and  shot  down  the 
rushing  cataract  like  a  salmon  at  Ballisodare. 

And,  when  he  got  to  the  bottom,  he  swam  till  he 
was  washed  on  shore  safe  upon  the  Other-end-of- 
Nowhere;  and  he  found  it,  to  his  surprise,  as  most 
other  people  do,  much  more  like  This-End-of-Some- 
where  than  he  had  been  in  the  habit  of  expecting. 

And  first  he  went  through  Waste-paper-land, 
where  all  the  stupid  books  lie  in  heaps,  up  hill  and 
down  dale,  like  leaves  in  a  winter  wood;  and  there 
he  saw  people  digging  and  grubbing  among  them,  to 

[233  ] 


THE    WATER-BABIES 

make  worse  books  out  of  bad  ones,  and  thrashing 
chaff  to  save  the  dust  of  it;  and  a  very  good  trade 
they  drove  thereby,  especially  among  children. 

Then  he  went  by  the  sea  of  slops,  to  the  mountain 
of  messes,  and  the  territory  of  tuck,  where  the 
ground  was  very  sticky,  for  it  was  all  made  of  bad 
toffee,  and  full  of  deep  cracks  and  holes  choked  with 
wind-fallen  fruit,  and  green  goose-berries,  and  sloes, 
and  crabs,  and  whinberries,  and  hips  and  haws,  and 
all  the  nasty  things  which  little  children  will  eat, 
if  they  can  get  them.  But  the  fairies  hide  them  out 
of  the  way  in  that  country  as  fast  as  they  can,  and 
very  hard  work  they  have,  and  of  very  little  use  it  is. 
For  as  fast  as  they  hide  away  the  old  trash,  foolish 
and  wicked  people  make  fresh  trash  full  of  lime  and 
poisonous  paints,  and  actually  go  and  steal  receipts 
out  of  old  Madame  Science's  big  book  to  invent 
poisons  for  little  children,  and  sell  them  at  wakes 
and  fairs  and  tuck-shops.  Very  well.  Let  them  go 
on.  Dr.  Letheby  and  Dr.  Hassall  cannot  catch  them, 
though  they  are  setting  traps  for  them  all  day  long. 
But  the  Fairy  with  the  birch-rod  will  catch  them  all 
in  time,  and  make  them  begin  at  one  corner  of  their 
shops,  and  eat  their  way  out  at  the  other :  by  which 
time  they  will  have  got  such  stomachaches  as  will 
cure  them  of  poisoning  little  children. 

[234] 


THE   WATER- BABIES 

Then  came  Tom  to  the  great  land  of  Hearsay. 

When  Tom  came  into  that  land,  he  found  them  all, 
high  and  low,  man,  woman,  and  child,  running  for 
their  lives  day  and  night  continually,  and  entreating 
not  to  be  told  they  didn't  know  what :  only  the  land 
being  an  island,  and  they  having  a  dislike  to  the 
water  (being  a  musty  lot  for  the  most  part),  they 


ran  round  and  round  the  shore  for  ever,  which  was 
hard  work. 

And  running  after  them,  day  and  night,  came  such 
a  poor,  lean,  seedy,  hard-worked  old  giant,  as  ought 
to  have  been  cockered  up,  and  had  a  good  dinner 
given  him,  and  a  good  wife  found  him,  and  been  set 
to  play  with  little  children ;  and  then  he  would  have 
been  a  very  presentable  old  fellow  after  all;  for  he 

[235  ] 


THE    WATER- BABIES 

had  a  heart,  though  it  was  considerably  overgrown 
with  brains. 

He  was  made  up  principally  of  fish  bones  and 
parchment,  put  together  with  wire  and  Canada  bal- 
sam; and  smelt  strongly  of  spirits,  though  he  never 
drank  anything  but  water:  but  spirits  he  used  some- 
how, there  was  no  denying.  He  had  a  great  pair  of 
spectacles  on  his  nose,  and  a  butterfly-net  in  one 
hand,  and  a  geological  hammer  in  the  other;  and 
was  hung  all  over  with  pockets,  full  of  collecting 
boxes,  bottles,  microscopes,  telescopes,  barometers^ 
ordnance  maps,  scalpels,  forceps,  photographic  ap- 
paratus, and  all  other  tackle  for  finding  out  every- 
thing about  everything,  and  a  little  more  too.  And^ 
most  strange  of  all,  he  was  running  not  forwards 
but  backwards,  as  fast  as  he  could. 

Away  all  the  good  folks  ran  from  him,  except 
Tom,  who  stood  his  ground  and  dodged  between  his 
legs;  and  the  giant,  when  he  had  passed  him,  looked 
down,  and  cried,  as  if  he  was  quite  pleased  and  com- 
forted,— 

"What?  who  are  you?  And  you  actually  don't 
run  away,  like  all  the  rest?"  But  he  had  to  take 
his  spectacles  off,  Tom  remarked,  in  order  to  see  him 
plainly. 

Tom  told  him  who  he  was;  and  the  giant  pulled 

[236] 


THE    WATER-BABIES 

out  a  bottle  and  a  cork  instantly,  to  collect  him 
with. 

But  Tom  was  too  sharp  for  that,  and  dodged  be- 
tween his  legs  and  in  front  of  him;  and  then  the  giant 
could  not  see  him  at  all. 

"  No,  no,  no !  "  said  Tom,  "  I've  not  been  round 
the  world,  and  through  the  world,  and  up  to  Mother 
Carey's  haven,  beside  being  caught  in  a  net  and 
called  a  Holothurian  and  a  Cephalopod,  to  be 
bottled  up  by  any  old  giant  like  you." 

And  when  the  giant  understood  what  a  .great 
traveller  Tom  had  been,  he  made  a  truce  with  him  at 
once,  and  would  have  kept  him  there  to  this  day  to 
pick  his  brains,  so  delighted  was  he  at  finding  any 
one  to  tell  him  what  he  did  not  know  before. 

"Ah,  you  lucky  little  dog!  "  said  he  at  last,  quite 
simply — for  he  was  the  simplest,  pleasantest,  honest- 
est,  kindliest  old  Dominie  Sampson  of  a  giant  that 
ever  turned  the  world  upside  down  without  intending 
it — "ah,  you  lucky  little  dog!  If  I  had  only  been 
where  you  have  been,  to  see  what  you  have  seen !  " 
"  Well,"  said  Tom,  "  if  you  want  to  do  that,  you 
had  best  put  your  head  under  water  for  a  few  hours, 
as  I  did,  and  turn  into  a  water-baby,  or  some  other 
baby,  and  then  you  might  have  a  chance." 

"  Turn  into  a  baby,  eh  ?    If  I  could  do  that,  and 

[237] 


THE   WATER-BABIES 

know  what  was  happening  to  me  for  but  one  hour,  I 
should  know  everything  then,  and  be  at  rest.  But 
I  can't;  I  can't  be  a  little  child  again;  and  I  suppose 
if  I  could,  it  would  be  no  use,  because  then  I  should 
know  nothing  about  what  was  happening  to  me. 
Ah,  you  lucky  little  dog!  "  said  the  poor  old  giant. 

"  But  why  do  you  run  after  all  these  poor  peo- 
ple? "  said  Tom,  who  liked  the  giant  very  much. 

"  My  dear,  it's  they  that  have  been  running  after 
me,  father  and  son,  for  hundreds  and  hundreds  of 
years,  throwing  stones  at  me  till  they  have  knocked 
off  my  spectacles  fifty  times,  and  calling  me  a  malig- 
nant and  a  turbaned  Turk,  who  beat  a  Venetian  and 
traduced  the  State — goodness  only  knows  what  they 
mean,  for  I  never  read  poetry — and  hunting  me 
round  and  round — though  catch  me  they  can't,  for 
every  time  I  go  over  the  same  ground,  I  go  the 
faster,  and  grow  the  bigger.  While  all  I  want  is 
to  be  friends  with  them,  and  to  tell  them  something 
to  their  advantage:  only  somehow  they  are  so 
strangely  afraid  of  hearing  it.  But,  I  suppose  I  am 
not  a  man  of  the  world,  and  have  no  tact." 

"  But  why  don't  you  turn  round  and  tell  them 
so?" 

"  Because  I  can't.  You  see,  I  must  go  backwards, 
if  I  am  to  go  at  all." 

[238] 


THE    WATER-BABIES 

"  But  why  don't  you  stop,  and  let  them  come  up 
to  you  ?  " 

"Why,  my  dear,  only  think.  If  I  did,  all  the 
butterflies  and  cockyolybirds  would  fly  past  me,  and 
then  I  should  catch  no  more  new  species,  and  should 
grow  rusty  and  mouldy,  and  die.  And  I  don't  intend 
to  do  that,  my  dear;  for  I  have  a  destiny  before  me, 
they  say :  though  what  it  is  I  don't  know,  and  don't 
care." 

"Don't  care?"  said  Tom. 

"  No.  Do  the  duty  which  lies  nearest  you,  and 
catch  the  first  beetle  you  come  across,  is  my  motto; 
and  I  have  thriven  by  it  for  some  hundred  years. 
Now  I  must  go  on.  Dear  me,  while  I  have  been  talk- 
ing to  you,  at  least  nine  new  species  have  escaped  me." 

And  on  went  the  giant,  behind  before,  like  a  bull 
in  a  china-shop,  till  he  ran  into  the  steeple  of  the 
great  idol  temple  (for  they  are  all  idolaters  in  those 
parts,  of  course,  else  they  would  never  be  afraid  of 
giants),  and  knocked  the  upper  half  clean  off,  hurt- 
ing himself  horribly  about  the  small  of  the  back. 

But  little  he  cared;  for  as  soon  as  the  ruins  of  the 
steeple  were  well  between  his  legs,  he  poked  and 
peered  among  the  falling  stones,  and  shifted  his 
spectacles,  and  pulled  out  his  pocket-magnifier,  and 

cried — 

i 

[239] 


THE    WATER-BABIES 

"  An  entirely  new  Oniscus,  and  three  obscure 
Podurellae!  Besides  a  moth  which  M.  le  Roi  des 
Papillons  (though  he,  like  all  Frenchmen,  is  given 
to  hasty  inductions)  says  is  confined  to  the  limits  of 
the  Glacial  Drift.  This  is  most  important!  " 

And  down  he  sat  on  the  nave  of  the  temple  (not 
being  a  man  of  the  world)  to  examine  his  Podurellae. 
Whereon  (as  was  to  be  expected)  the  roof  caved  in 
bodily,  smashing  the  idols,  and  sending  the  priests 
flying  out  of  doors  and  windows,  like  rabbits  out  of  a 
burrow  when  a  ferret  goes  in. 

But  he  never  heeded;  for  out  of  the  dust  flew  a 
bat,  and  the  giant  had  him  in  a  moment. 

"  Dear  me !  This  is  even  more  important !  Here 
is  a  cognate  species  to  that  which  Macgilliwaukie 
Brown  insists  is  confined  to  the  Buddhist  temples  of 
Little  Thibet;  and  now  when  I  look  at  it,  it  may 
be  only  a  variety  produced  by  difference  of  climate  !  " 

And  having  bagged  his  bat,  up  he  got,  and  on  he 
went;  while  all  the  people  ran,  being  in  none  the 
better  humour  for  having  their  temple  smashed  for 
the  sake  of  three  obscure  species  of  Podurella,  and 
a  Buddhist  bat. 

"  Well,"  thought  Tom,  "  this  is  a  very  pretty 
quarrel,  with  a  good  deal  to  be  said  on  both  sides. 
But  it  is  no  business  of  mine." 

[240] 


THE    WATER- BABIES 

So  the  giant  ran  round  after  the  people,  and  the 
people  ran  round  after  the  giant,  and  they  are  run- 
ning unto  this  day  for  aught  I  know,  or  do  not  know; 
and  will  run  till  either  he,  or  they,  or  both,  turn  into 
little  children.  And  then,  as  Shakespeare  says  (and 
therefore  it  must  be  true)  — 

"  Jack  shall  have  Gill 
Nought  shall  go  ill 

The  man  shall  have  his  mare  again,  and  all  go 
well" 

Then  Tom  came  to  a  very  famous  island,  which 
was  called,  in  the  days  of  the  great  traveller  Captain 
Gulliver,  the  Isle  of  Laputa.  But  Mrs.  Bedonebyas- 
youdid  has  named  it  over  again,  the  Isle  of  Tom- 
toddies,  all  heads  and  no  bodies. 

And  when  Tom  came  near  it,  he  heard  such  a 
grumbling  and  grunting  and  growling  and  wailing 
and  weeping  and  whining  that  he  thought  people 
must  be  ringing  little  pigs,  or  cropping  puppies'  earo, 
or  drowning  kittens:  but  when  he  came  nearer  still, 
he  began  to  hear  words  among  the  noise;  which  was 
the  Tomtoddies'  song  which  they  sing  morning  and 
evening,  and  all  night  too,  to  their  great  idol  Ex- 
amination— 

[241] 


THE    WATER- BABIES 

"/  can't  learn  my  lessons:  the  examiner's  coming!" 

And  that  was  the  only  song  which  they  knew. 

And  when  Tom  got  on  shore  the  first  thing  he  saw 
was  a  great  pillar,  on  one  side  of  which  was  in- 
scribed, "  Playthings  not  allowed  here;  "  at  which  he 
was  so  shocked  that  he  would  not  stay  to  see  wha£ 
was  written  on  the  other  side.  Then  he  looked 
round  for  the  people  of  the  island:  but  instead  of 
men,  women,  and  children,  he  found  nothing  but 
turnips  and  radishes,  beet  and  mangold  wurzel,  with- 
out a  single  green  leaf  among  them,  and  half  of  rhzm 
burst  and  decayed,  with  toad-stools  growing  out  of 
them.  Those  which  were  left  began  crying  to  Tom, 
in  half  a  dozen  different  languages  at  once,  and  all 
of  them  badly  spoken,  "  I  can't  learn  my  lesson;  do 
come  and  help  me  !  " 

"  And  what  good  on  earth  will  it  do  you  if  I  did 
tell  you  ?  "  quoth  Tom. 

Well,  they  didn't  know  that:  all  they  knew  was 
the  examiner  was  coming. 

Then  Tom  stumbled  on  the  hugest  and  softest 
nimblecomequick  turnip  you  ever  saw  filling  a  hole  in 
a  crop  of  swedes,  and  it  cried  to  him,  "  Can  you  tell 
me  anything  at  all  about  anything  you  like  ?  " 

"About  what?"  says  Tom. 

[2421 


THE    WATER-BABIES 

"About  anything  you  like;  for  as  fast  as  I  learn 
things  I  forget  them  again.  So  my  mamma  says  that 
my  intellect  is  not  adapted  for  methodic  science,  and 
says  that  I  must  go  in  for  general  information." 

Tom  told  him  that  he  did  not  know  general  in- 
formation: but  he  could  tell  him  a  great  many 
strange  things  which  he  had  seen  in  his  travels. 

So  he  told  him  prettily  enough,  while  the  poor 
turnip  listened  very  carefully;  and  the  more  he 


listened,  the  more  he  forgot,  and  the  more  water 
ran  out  of  him. 

Tom  thought  he  was  crying:  but  it  was  only  his 
poor  brains  running  away,  from  being  worked  so 
hard;  and  as  Tom  talked,  the  unhappy  turnip 
streamed  down  all  over  with  juice,  and  split  and 
shrank  till  nothing  was  left  of  him  but  rind  and 
water;  whereat  Tom  ran  away  in  a  fright,  for  he 
thought  he  might  be  taken  up  for  killing  the  turnip. 

[243] 


THE    WATER-BABIES 

But,  on  the  contrary,  the  turnip's  parents  were 
highly  delighted,  and  considered  him  a  saint  and  a 
martyr,  and  put  up  a  long  inscription  over  his  tomb 
about  his  wonderful  talents,  early  development,  and 
unparalleled  precocity.  Were  they  not  a  foolish 
couple?  But  there  was  a  still  more  foolish  couple 
next  to  them,  who  were  beating  a  wretched  little 
radish,  no  bigger  than  my  thumb,  for  sullenness  and 
obstinacy  and  wilful  stupidity,  and  never  knew  that 
the  reason  why  it  couldn't  learn  or  hardly  even  speak 
was,  that  there  was  a  great  worm  inside  it  eating 
out  all  its  brains.  But  even  they  are  no  foolisher 
than  some  hundred  score  of  papas  and  mammas,  who 
fetch  the  rod  when  they  ought  to  fetch  a  new  toy,  and 
send  to  the  dark  cupboard  instead  of  to  the  doctor. 

Tom  was  so  puzzled  and  frightened  with  all  he 
saw,  that  he  was  longing  to  ask  the  meaning  of  it; 
and  at  last  he  stumbled  over  a  respectable  old  stick 
lying  half  covered  with  earth.  But  a  very  stout  and 
worthy  stick  it  was,  for  it  belonged  to  good  Roger 
Ascham  in  old  time,  and  had  carved  on  its  head 
King  Edward  the  Sixth,  with  the  Bible  in  his  hand. 

u  You  see,"  said  the  stick,  "  there  were  as  pretty 
little  children  once  as  you  could  wish  to  see,  and 
might  have  been  so  still  if  they  had  been  only  left  to 
grow  up  like  human  beings,  and  then  handed  over  to 

[244] 


THE    WATER^BABIES 

me;  but  their  foolish  fathers  and  mothers,  instead  of 
letting  them  pick  flowers,  and  make  dirt-pies,  and  get 
birds'  nests,  and  dance  round  the  gooseberry  bush,  as 
little  children  should,  kept  them  always  at  lessons, 
working,  working,  working,  learning  week-day  les- 
sons all  week-days,  and  Sunday  lessons  all  Sunday, 
and  weekly  examinations  every  Saturday,  and 
monthly  examinations  every  month,  and  yearly  ex- 
aminations every  year,  everything  seven  times  over, 
as  if  once  was  not  enough,  and  enough  as  good  as  a 
feast — till  their  brains  grew  big,  and  their  bodies 
grew  small,  and  they  were  all  changed  into  turnips, 
with  little  but  water  inside;  and  still  their  foolish 
parents  actually  pick  the  leaves  off  them  as  fast  as 
they  grow,  lest  they  should  have  anything  green 
about  them." 

"  Ah !  "  said  Tom,  "  if  dear  Mrs.  Doasyouwould- 
bedoneby  knew  of  it  she  would  send  them  a  lot  of 
tops,  and  balls,  and  marbles,  and  ninepins,  and  make 
them  all  as  jolly  as  sand-boys." 

"  It  would  be  no  use,"  said  the  stick.  "  They 
can't  play  now,  if  they  tried.  Don't  you  see  how 
their  legs  have  turned  to  roots  and  grown  into  the 
ground,  by  never  taking  any  exercise,  but  sapping 
and  moping  always  in  the  same  place?  But  here 
comes  the  Examiner-of-all-Examiners.  So  you  had 

[245] 


THE    WATER-BABIES 

better  get  away,  I  warn  you,  or  he  will  examine  you 
and  your  dog  into  the  bargain,  and  set  him  to  exam- 
ine all  the  other  dogs,  and  you  to  examine  all  the 
other  water-babies.  There  is  no  escaping  out  of  his 
hands,  for  his  nose  is  nine  thousand  miles  long,  and 
can  go  down  chimneys,  and  through  keyholes,  up- 
stairs, downstairs,  in  my  lady's  chamber,  examining 
all  little  boys,  and  the  little  boys'  tutors  likewise. 
But  when  he  is  thrashed — so  Mrs.  Bedonebyasyou- 
did  has  promised  me — I  shall  have  the  thrashing  of 
him:  and  if  I  don't  lay  it  on  with  a  will  it's  a  pity." 

Tom  went  off:  but  rather  slowly  and  surlily;  for 
he  was  somewhat  minded  to  face  this  same  Exam- 
iner-of-all-Examiners,  who  came  striding  among  the 
poor  turnips,  binding  heavy  burdens  and  grievous  to 
be  borne,  and  laying  them  on  little  children's  shoul- 
ders, like  the  Scribes  and  Pharisees  of  old,  and  not 
touching  the  same  with  one  of  his  fingers;  for  he  had 
plenty  of  money,  and  a  fine  house  to  live  in,  and  so 
forth;  which  was  more  than  the  poor  little  turnips 
had. 

But  when  he  got  near,  he  looked  so  big  and  burly 
and  dictatorial,  and  shouted  so  loud  to  Tom,  to 
come  and  be  examined,  that  Tom  ran  for  his  life,  and 
the  dog  too.  And  really  it  was  time;  for  the  poor 
turnips,  in  their  hurry  and  fright,  crammed  them- 

[246] 


THE    WATER-BABIES 

selves  so  fast  to  be  ready  for  the  Examiner,  that 
they  burst  and  popped  by  dozens  all  round  him,  till 
the  place  sounded  like  Aldershot  on  a  field-day,  and 
Tom  thought  he  should  be  blown  into  the  air,  dog 
and  all. 

As  he  went  down  to  the  shore  he  passed  the  poor 
turnip's  new  tomb.  But  Mrs.  Bedonebyasyoudid 
had  taken  away  the  epitaph  about  talents  and  preco- 
city and  development,  and  put  up  one  of  her  own 
instead  which  Tom  thought  much  more  sensible : — 

"Instruction  sore  long  time  I  bore, 

And  cramming  was  in  vain; 
Till  heaven  did  please  my  woes  to  ease 
With  water  on  the  brain'' 

So  Tom  jumped  into  the  sea,  and  swam  on  his 
way. 

And  next  he  came  to  Oldwivesfabledom,  where 
the  folks  were  all  heathens,  and  worshipped  a  howl- 
ing ape. 

And  there  he  found  a  little  boy  sitting  in  the 
middle  of  the  road,  and  crying  bitterly. 

"  What  are  you  crying  for?  "  said  Tom. 

"  Because  I  am  not  as  frightened  as  I  could  wish 
to  be." 

[247] 


THE    WATER- BABIES 

"  Not  frightened  ?  You  are  a  queer  little  chap : 
but,  if  you  want  to  be  frightened,  here  goes — 
Boo!" 

"  Ah,"  said  the  little  boy,  "  that  is  very  kind  of 
you;  but  I  don't  feel  that  it  has  made  any  impres- 
sion." 

Tom  offered  to  upset  him,  punch  him,  stamp  on 
him,  fettle  him  over  the  head  with  a  brick,  or  any- 
thing else  whatsoever  which  would  give  him  the 
slightest  comfort. 

But  he  only  thanked  Tom  very  civilly,  in  fine  long 
words  which  he  had  heard  other  folk  use,  and  which, 
therefore,  he  thought  were  fit  and  proper  to  use  him- 
self; and  cried  on  till  his  papa  and  mamma  came,  and 
sent  off  for  the  Powwow  man  immediately.  And  a 
very  good-natured  gentleman  and  lady  they  were, 
though  they  were  heathens;  and  talked  quite  pleas- 
antly to  Tom  about  his  travels,  till  the  Powwow  man 
arrived,  with  his  thunderbox  under  his  arm. 

And  a  well-fed,  ill-favoured  gentleman  he  was. 
Tom  was  a  little  frightened  at  first;  for  he  thought  it 
was  Grimes.  But  he  soon  saw  his  mistake :  for 
Grimes  always  looked  a  man  in  the  face ;  and  this 
fellow  never  did.  And  when  he  spoke,  it  was  fire 
and  smoke;  and  when  he  sneezed,  it  was  squibs  and 
crackers;  and  when  he  cried  (which  he  did  whenever 

T2481 


THE    WATER- BABIES 

it  paid  him),  it  was  boiling  pitch;  and  some  of  it 
was  sure  to  stick. 

"  Here  we  are  again !  "  cried  he,  like  the  down 
in  a  pantomime.  "  So  you  can't  feel  frightened,  my 
little  dear — eh?  I'll  do  that  for  you.  I'll  make  an 
impression  on  you !  Yah !  Boo !  Whirroo !  Hulla- 
baloo !  " 

And  he  rattled,  thumped,  brandished  his  thunder- 
box,  yelled,  shouted,  raved,  roared,  stamped,  and 
danced  corrobory  like  any  black  fellow;  and  then  he 
touched  a  spring  in  the  thunderbox,  and  out  popped 
turnip-ghosts  and  magic-lanthorns  and  pasteboard 
bogies  and  spring-heeled  Jacks,  and  sallaballas,  with 
such  a  horrid  din,  clatter,  clank,  roll,  rattle,  and  roar, 
that  the  little  boy  turned  up  the  whites  of  his  eyes, 
and  fainted  right  away. 

And  at  that  his  poor  heathen  papa  and  mamma 
were  as  much  delighted  as  if  they  had  found  a  gold 
mine;  and  fell  down  upon  their  knees  before  the 
Powwow  man,  and  gave  him  a  palanquin  with  a  pole 
of  solid  silver  and  curtains  of  cloth  of  gold;  and 
carried  him  about  in  it  on  their  own  backs:  but  as 
soon  as  they  had  taken  him  up,  the  pole  stuck  to  their 
shoulders,  and  they  could  not  set  him  down  any 
more,  but  carried  him  on  willynilly,  as  Sinbad  car- 
ried the  old  man  of  the  sea:  which  was  a  pitiable 

[249] 


THE   WATER-BABIES 

sight  to  see ;  for  the  father  was  a  very  brave  officer, 
and  wore  two  swords  and  a  blue  button;  and  the 
mother  was  as  pretty  a  lady  as  ever  had  pinched  feet 
like  a  Chinese.  But,  you  see,  they  had  chosen  to  do 
a  foolish  thing  just  once  too  often;  so,  by  the  laws  of 
Mrs.  Bedonebyasyoudid,  they  had  to  go  on  doing 
it  whether  they  chose  or  not,  till  the  coming  of  the 
Cocqcigrues. 

Ah !  don't  you  wish  that  some  one  would  go  and 
convert  those  poor  heathens,  and  teach  them  not  to 
frighten  their  little  children  into  fits? 

"  Now,  then,"  said  the  Powwow  man  to  Tom, 
"  wouldn't  you  like  to  be  frightened,  my  little  dear? 
For  I  can  see  plainly  that  you  are  a  very  wicked, 
naughty,  graceless,  reprobate  boy." 

"  You're  another,"  quoth  Tom,  very  sturdily. 
And  when  the  man  ran  at  him,  and  cried  "  Boo !  " 
Tom  ran  at  him  in  return,  and  cried  "  Boo !  "  like- 
wise, right  in  his  face,  and  set  the  little  dog  upon 
him;  and  at  his  legs  the  dog  went. 

At  which,  if  you  will  believe  it,  the  fellow  turned 
tail,  thunderbox  and  all,  with  a  "Woof!"  like  an 
old  sow  on  the  common ;  and  ran  for  his  life,  scream- 
ing, "  Help !  thieves !  murder !  fire  !  He  is  going  to 
kill  me!  I  am  a  ruined  man!  He  will  murder  me; 
and  break,  burn,  and  destroy  my  precious  and  in- 

[250] 


THE    WATER-BABIES 

valuable  thunderbox;  and  then  you  will  have  no 
more  thunder-showers  in  the  land.  Help!  helpl 
help !  " 

At  which  the  papa  and  mamma  and  all  the  people 
of  Oldwivesfabledom  flew  at  Tom,  shouting,  "  Oh, 


the  wicked,  impudent,  hard-hearted,  graceless  boy! 
Beat  him,  kick  him,  shoot  him,  drown  him,  hang  him, 
burn  him !  "  and  so  forth :  but  luckily  they  had  noth- 
ing to  shoot,  hang,  or  burn  him  with,  for  the  fairies 
had  hid  all  the  killing-tackle  out  of  the  way  a  little 
while  before ;  so  they  could  only  pelt  him  with  stones ; 
and  some  of  the  stones  went  clean  through  him,  and 
came  out  the  other  side.  But  he  did  not  mind  that  a 
bit;  for  the  holes  closed  up  again  as  fast  as  they  were 
made,  because  he  was  a  water-baby.  However,  he 
was  very  glad  when  he  was  safe  out  of  the  country, 
for  the  noise  there  made  him  all  but  deaf. 

[251] 


THE    WATER-BABIES 

Then  he  came  to  a  very  quiet  place,  called  Leave- 
heavenalone.  And  there  the  sun  was  drawing  water 
out  of  the  sea  to  make  steam-threads,  and  the  wind 
was  twisting  them  up  to  make  cloud-patterns,  till  they 
had  worked  between  them  the  loveliest  wedding  veil 
of  Chantilly  lace,  and  hung  it  up  in  their  own  Crystal 
Palace  for  any  one  to  buy  who  could  afford  it;  while 
the  good  old  sea  never  grudged,  for  she  knew  they 
would  pay  her  back  honestly.  So  the  sun  span,  and 
the  wind  wove,  and  all  went  well  with  the  great 
steam-loom;  as  is  likely,  considering — and  consider- 
ing— and  considering — 

And  at  last,  after  innumerable  adventures,  each 
more  wonderful  than  the  last,  he  saw  before  him  a 
huge  building. 

Tom  walked  towards  this  great  building,  wonder- 
ing what  it  was,  and  having  a  strange  fancy  that  he 
might  find  Mr.  Grimes  inside  it,  till  he  saw  running 
toward  him,  and  shouting  "  Stop !  "  three  or  four 
people,  who,  when  they  came  nearer,  were  nothing 
else  than  policemen's  truncheons,  running  along  with- 
out legs  or  arms. 

Tom  was  not  astonished.  He  was  long  past  that. 
Besides,  he  had  seen  the  naviculae  in  the  water  move 
nobody  knows  how,  a  hundred  times,  without  arms 
or  legs,  or  anything  to  stand  in  their  stead.  Neither 

[252] 


THE    WATER-BABIES 

was  he  frightened;  for  he  had  been  doing  no  harm. 

So  he  stopped;  and,  when  the  foremost  truncheon 
came  up  and  asked  his  business,  he  showed  Mother 
Carey's  pass;  and  the  truncheon  looked  at  it  in  the 
oddest  fashion;  for  he  had  one  eye  in  the  middle  of 
his  upper  end,  so  that  when  he  looked  at  anything, 
being  quite  stiff,  he  had  to  slope  himself,  and  poke 
himself,  till  it  was  a  wonder  why  he  did  not  tumble 
over;  but,  being  quite  full  of  the  spirit  of  justice  (as 
all  policemen,  and  their  truncheons,  ought  to  be) ,  he 
was  always  in  a  position  of  stable  equilibrium,  which- 
ever way  he  put  himself. 

"  All  right — pass  on,"  said  he  at  last.  And  then 
he  added:  "  I  had  better  go  with  you,  young  man." 
And  Tom  had  no  objection,  for  such  company  was 
both  respectable  and  safe;  so  the  truncheon  coiled  its 
thong  neatly  round  its  handle,  to  prevent  tripping 
itself  up — for  the  thong  had  got  loose  in  running — 
and  marched  on  by  Tom's  side. 

"Why  have  you  no  policeman  to  carry  you?" 
asked  Tom,  after  a  while. 

"  Because  we  are  not  like  those  clumsy-made  trun- 
cheons in  the  land-world,  which  cannot  go  without 
having  a  whole  man  to  carry  them  about.  We  do 
our  own  work  for  ourselves;  and  do  it  very  well, 
though  I  say  it  who  should  not." 

[253] 


THE    WATER-BABIES 

"  Then  why  have  you  a  thong  to  your  handle  ?  " 
asked  Tom. 

"  To  hang  ourselves  up  by,  of  course,  when  we 
are  off  duty." 

Tom  had  got  his  answer,  and  had  no  more  to  say, 
till  they  came  up  to  the  great  iron  door  of  the 
prison.  And  there  the  truncheon  knocked  twice,  with 
its  own  head. 

A  wicket  in  the  door  opened,  and  out  looked  a 
tremendous  old  brass  blunderbuss  charged  up  to  the 
muzzle  with  slugs,  who  was  the  porter;  and  Tom 
started  back  a  little  at  the  sight  of  him. 

"What  case  is  this?"  he  asked  in  a  deep  voice, 
out  of  his  broad  bell  mouth. 

"If  you  please,  sir,  it  is  no  case;  only  a  young 
gentleman  from  her  ladyship,  who  wants  to  see 
Grimes,  the  master-sweep." 

"  Grimes?  "  said  the  blunderbuss.  And  he  pulled 
in  his  muzzle,  perhaps  to  look  over  his  prison- 
lists. 

"  Grimes  is  up  chimney  No.  345,"  he  said  from 
inside.  "  So  the  young  gentleman  had  better  go  on 
to  the  roof." 

Tom  looked  up  at  the  enormous  wall,  which 
seemed  at  least  ninety  miles  high,  and  wondered  how 
he  should  ever  get  up;  but,  when  he  hinted  that  to 

[254] 


THE    WATER-BABIES 

the  truncheon,  it  settled  the  matter  in  a  moment. 
For  it  whisked  round,  and  gave  him  such  a  shove 
behind  as  sent  him  up  to  the  roof  in  no  time,  with  his 
little  dog  under  his  arm. 

And  there  he  walked  along  the  leads,  till  he  met 
another  truncheon,  and  told  hirn  his  errand. 

'*  Very  good,"  it  said.  "  Come  along:  but  it  will 
be  of  no  use.  He  is  the  most  unremorseful,  hard- 
hearted, foul-mouthed  fellow  I  have  in  charge;  and 
thinks  about  nothing  but  beer  and  pipes,  which  are 
not  allowed  here,  of  course." 

So  they  walked  along  over  the  leads,  and  very 
sooty  they  were,  and  Tom  thought  the  chimneys 
must  want  sweeping  very  much.  But  he  was  sur- 
prised to  see  that  the  soot  did  not  stick  to  his  feet,  or 
dirty  them  in  the  least.  Neither  did  the  live  coals, 
which  were  lying  about  in  plenty,  burn  him;  for, 
being  a  water-baby,  his  radical  humours  were  of  a 
moist  and  cold  nature,  as  you  may  read  at  large  in 
Lemnius,  Cardan,  Van  Helmont,  and  other  gentle- 
men, who  knew  as  much  as  they  could,  and  no  man 
can  know  more. 

And  at  last  they  came  to  chimney  No.  345.  Out 
of  the  top  of  it,  his  head  and  shoulders  just  showing, 
stuck  poor  Mr.  Grimes,  so  sooty,  and  bleared,  and 
ugly,  that  Tom  could  hardly  bear  to  look  at  him. 

[255] 


THE    WATER- BABIES 

And  in  his  mouth  was  a  pipe;  but  it  was  not  alight; 
though  he  was  pulling  at  it  with  all  his  might. 

"  Attention,  Mr.  Grimes,"  said  the  truncheon, 
<%  here  is  a  gentleman  come  to  see  you." 

But  Mr.  Grimes  only  said  bad  words;  and  kept 
grumbling,  "  My  pipe  won't  draw.  My  pipe  won't 
draw." 

"  Keep  a  civil  tongue,  and  attend !  "  said  the  trun- 
cheon; and  popped  up  just  like  Punch,  hitting  Grimes 


such  a  crack  over  the  head  with  itself,  that  his  brains 
rattled  inside  like  a  dried  walnut  in  its  shell.  He 
tried  to  get  his  hands  out,  and  rub  the  place :  but  he 
could  not,  for  they  were  stuck  fast  in  the  chimney. 
Now  he  was  forced  to  attend. 

"Hey!"  he  said,  "why,  it's  Tom!  I  suppose 
you  have  come  here  to  laugh  at  me,  you  spiteful 
little  atomy?" 

Tom  assured  him  he  had  not,  but  only  wanted 
to  help  him. 

"  I  don't  want  anything  except  beer,  and  that  I 
[256] 


THE   WATER- BABIES 

can't  get;  and  a  light  to  this  bothering  pipe,  and  that 
I  can't  get  either." 

"  I'll  get  you  one,"  said  Tom;  and  he  took  up  a 
live  coal  (there  were  plenty  lying  about)  and  put  it 
to  Grimes'  pipe :  but  it  went  out  instantly. 

"  It's  no  use,"  said  the  truncheon,  leaning  itself 
up  against  the  chimney  and  looking  on.  "  I  tell  you, 
it  is  no  use.  His  heart  is  so  cold  that  it  freezes 
everything  that  comes  near  him.  You  will  see  that 
presently,  plain  enough." 

"  Oh,  of  course,  it's  my  fault.  Everything's  al- 
ways my  fault,"  said  Grimes.  "  Now  don't  go  to 
hit  me  again"  (for  the  truncheon  started  upright, 
and  looked  very  wicked)  ;  "  you  know,  if  my  arms 
were  only  free,  you  daren't  hit  me  then." 

The  truncheon  leant  back  against  the  chimney,  and 
took  no  notice  of  the  personal  insult,  like  a  well- 
trained  policeman  as  it  was,  though  he  was  ready 
enough  to  avenge  any  transgression  against  morality 
or  order. 

"  But  can't  I  help  you  in  any  other  way?  Can't 
I  help  you  to  get  out  of  this  chimney?  "  said  Tom. 

"No,"  interposed  the  truncheon;  "he  has  come 
to  the  place  where  everybody  must  help  themselves; 
and  he  will  find  it  out,  I  hope,  before  he  has  done 
with  me." 

[257] 


THE    WATER- BABIES 

"  Oh,  yes,"  said  Grimes,  "  of  course  it's  me.  Did 
I  ask  to  be  brought  here  into  the  prison?  Did  I  asK 
to  be  set  to  sweep  your  foul  chimneys  ?  Did  I  ask  to 
have  lighted  straw  put  under  me  to  make  me  go  up  ? 
Did  I  ask  to  stick  fast  in  the  very  first  chimney  or 
all,  because  it  was  so  shamefully  clogged  up  with 
soot?  Did  I  ask  to  stay  here — I  don't  know  how 
long — a  hundred  years,  I  do  believe,  and  never  get 
my  pipe,  nor  my  beer,  nor  nothing  fit  for  a  beast, 
let  alone  a  man?  " 

"  No,"  answered  a  solemn  voice  behind.  "  No 
more  did  Tom,  when  you  behaved  to  him  in  the  very 
same  way." 

It  was  Mrs.  Bedonebyasyoudid.  And,  when  the 
truncheon  saw  her,  it  started  bolt  upright — Atten- 
tion ! — and  made  such  a  low  bow,  that  if  it  had  not 
been  full  of  the  spirit  of  justice,  it  must  have  trembled 
on  its  end,  and  probably  hurt  its  one  eye.  And  Tom 
made  his  bow  too. 

"Oh,  ma'am,"  he  said,  "don't  think  about  me; 
that's  all  past  and  gone,  and  good  times  and  bad 
times  and  all  times  pass  over.  But  may  not  I  help 
poor  Mr.  Grimes?  Mayn't  I  try  and  get  some  of 
these  bricks  away,  that  he  may  move  his  arms?  " 

"  You  may  try,  of  course,"  she  said. 

So  Tom  pulled  and  tugged  at  the  bricks :  but  he 

[258] 


THE    WATER- BABIES 

could  not  move  one.    And  then  he  tried  to  wipe  Mr. 
Grimes'  face :  but  the  soot  would  not  come  off. 

"  Oh,  dear !  "  he  said.  "  I  have  come  all  this 
way,  through  all  these  terrible  places,  to  help  you, 
and  now  I  am  of  no  use  at  all." 

'You  had  best  leave  me  alone,"  said  Grimes; 
"  you  are  a  good-natured  forgiving  little  chap,  and 
that's  truth;  but  you'd  best  be  off.  The  hail's  com- 
ing on  soon,  and  it  will  beat  the  eyes  out  of  your 
little  head." 

"What  hail?" 

"  Why,  hail  that  falls  every  evening  here ;  and, 
till  it  comes  close  to  me,  it's  like  so  much  warm  rain: 
but  then  it  turns  to  hail  over  my  head,  and  knocks 
me  about  like  small  shot." 

"  That  hail  will  never  come  any  more,"  said  the 
strange  lady.  "  I  have  told  you  before  what  it  was. 
It  was  your  mother's  tears,  those  which  she  shed 
when  she  prayed  for  you  by  her  bedside;  but  your 
cold  heart  froze  it  into  hail.  But  she  is  gone  to 
heaven  now,  and  will  weep  no  more  for  her  grace- 
less son." 

Then  Grimes  was  silent  awhile;  and  then  he 
looked  very  sad. 

"  So  my  old  mother's  gone,  and  I  never  there  to 
speak  to  her !  Ah !  a  good  woman  she  was,  and 

[259] 


THE    WATER-BABIES 

might  have  been  a  happy  one,  in  her  little  school 
there  in  Vendale,  if  it  hadn't  been  for  me  and  my 
bad  ways." 

"Did  she  keep  the  school  in  Vendale?"  asked 
Tom.  And  then  he  told  Grimes  all  the  story  of  his 
going  to  her  house,  and  how  she  could  not  abide  the 
sight  of  a  chimney-sweep,  and  then  how  kind  she 
was,  and  how  he  turned  into  a  water-baby. 

"  Ah !  "  said  Grimes,  "  good  reason  she  had  to 
hate  the  sight  of  a  chimney-sweep.  I  ran  away  from 
her  and  took  up  with  the  sweeps,  and  never  let  her 
know  where  I  was,  nor  sent  her  a  penny  to  help  her, 
and  now  it's  too  late — too  late !  "  said  Mr.  Grimes. 

And  he  began  crying  and  blubbering  like  a  great 
baby,  till  his  pipe  dropped  out  of  his  mouth,  and 
broke  all  to  bits. 

"  Oh,  dear,  if  I  was  but  a  little  chap  in  Vendale 
again,  to  see  the  clear  beck,  and  the  apple-orchard, 
and  the  yew-hedge,  how  different  I  would  go  on ! 
But  it's  too  late  now.  So  you  go  along,  you  kind 
little  chap,  and  don't  stand  to  look  at  a  man  crying, 
that's  old  enough  to  be  your  father,  and  never  feared 
the  face  of  man,  nor  of  worse  neither.  But  I'm  beat 
now,  and  beat  I  must  be.  I've  made  my  bed,  and  I 
must  lie  on  it.  Foul  I  would  be,  and  foul  I  am,  as 
an  Irishwoman  said  to  me  once;  and  little  I  heeded 

[260] 


THE    WATER-BABIES 

it.  It's  all  my  own  fault:  but  it's  too  late."  And  he 
cried  so  bitterly  that  Tom  began  crying  too. 

"  Never  too  late,"  said  the  fairy,  in  such  a  strange 
soft  new  voice  that  Tom  looked  up  at  her;  and  she 
was  so  beautiful  for  the  moment,  that  Tom  half 
fancied  she  was  her  sister. 

No  more  was  it  too  late.  For,  as  poor  Grimes 
cried  and  blubbered  on,  his  own  tears  did  what  his 
mother's  could  not  do,  and  Tom's  could  not  do,  and 
nobody's  on  earth  could  do  for  him;  for  they  washed 
the  soot  off  his  face  and  off  his  clothes;  and  then 
they  washed  the  mortar  away  from  between  the 
bricks;  and  the  chimney  crumbled  down;  and  Grimes 
began  to  get  out  of  it. 

Up  jumped  the  truncheon,  and  was  going  to  hit 
him  on  the  crown  a  tremendous  thump,  and  drive 
him  down  again  like  a  cork  into  a  bottle.  But  the 
strange  lady  put  it  aside. 

"  Will  you  obey  me  if  I  give  you  a  chance?" 

"  As  you  please,  ma'am.  You're  stronger  than 
me — that  I  know  too  well,  and  wiser  than  me,  I 
know  too  well  also.  And,  as  for  being  my  own 
master,  I've  fared  ill  enough  with  that  as  yet.  So 
whatever  your  ladyship  pleases  to  order  me;  for 
I'm  beat,  and  that's  the  truth." 

"  Be  it  so  then — you  may  come  out.    But  remem- 


THE    WATER-BABIES 

her,  disobey  me  again,  and  into  a  worse  place  still 
you  go." 

"  I  beg  pardon,  ma'am,  but  I  never  disobeyed  you 
that  I  know  of.  I  never  had  the  honour  of  setting 
eyes  upon  you  till  I  came  to  these  ugly  quarters." 

"  Never  saw  me  ?  Who  said  to  you,  Those  that 
will  be  foul,  foul  they  will  be?  " 

Grimes  looked  up;  and  Tom  looked  up  too;  for 
the  voice  was  that  of  the  Irishwoman  who  met  them 
the  day  that  they  went  out  together  to  Harthover. 
"  I  gave  you  your  warning  then :  but  you  gave  it 
yourself  a  thousand  times  before  and  since.  Every 
bad  word  that  you  said — every  cruel  and  mean  thing 
that  you  did — every  time  that  you  got  tipsy — every 
day  that  you  went  dirty — you  were  disobeying  me, 
whether  you  knew  it  or  not." 

"  If  I'd  only  known,  ma'am " 

"  You  knew  well  enough  that  you  were  disobeying 
something,  though  you  did  not  know  it  was  me.  But 
come  out  and  take  your  chance.  Perhaps  it  may  be 
your  last." 

So  Grimes  stepped  out  of  the  chimney,  and  really, 
if  it  had  not  been  for  the  scars  on  his  face,  he  looked 
as  clean  and  respectable  as  a  master-sweep  need  look. 

"  Take  him  away,"  said  she  to  the  truncheon, 
M  and  give  him  his  ticket-of-leave." 

[262] 


THE   WATER- BABIES 

"  And  what  is  he  to  do,  ma'am?  " 

"  Get  him  to  sweep  out  the  crater  of  Etna ;  he 
will  find  some  very  steady  men  working  out  their 
time  there,  who  will  teach  him  his  business:  but 
mind,  if  that  crater  gets  choked  again,  and  there  is 
an  earthquake  in  consequence,  bring  them  all  to  me, 
and  I  shall  investigate  the  case  very  severely." 

So  the  truncheon  marched  off  Mr.  Grimes,  looking 
as  meek  as  a  drowned  worm. 

And  for  aught  I  know,  or  do  not  know,  he  is 
sweeping  the  crater  of  Etna  to  this  very  day. 

"  And  now,"  said  the  fairy  to  Tom,  "  your  work 
here  is  done.  You  may  as  well  go  back  again." 

"  I  should  be  glad  enough  to  go,"  said  Tom,  "  but 
how  am  I  to  get  up  that  great  hole  again,  now  the 
steam  has  stopped  blowing?  " 

"  I  will  take  you  up  the  backstairs :  but  I  must 
bandage  your  eyes  first;  for  I  never  allow  anybody 
to  see  those  backstairs  of  mine." 

So  she  tied  the  bandage  on  his  eyes  with  one  hand, 
and  with  the  other  she  took  it  off. 

"  Now,"  she  said,  "  you  are  safe  up  the  stairs." 
Tom  opened  his  eyes  very  wide,  and  his  mouth  too; 
for  he  had  not,  as  he  thought,  moved  a  single  step. 
But,  when  he  looked  round  him,  there  could  be  no 
doubt  that  he  was  safe  up  the  backstairs,  whatsoever 

[263] 


THE    WATER-BABIES 


they  may  be,  which  no  man 
is  going  to  tell  you,  for  the 
plain  reason  that  no  man 
knows. 

The  first  thing  which 
Tom  saw  was  ihe  black 
cedars,  high  and  sharp 
against  the  rosy  dawn ;  and 
St.  Brandan's  Isle  reflected 
double  in  the  still  broad  silver  sea.  The  wind  sang 
softly  in  the  cedars,  and  the  water  sang  among  the 
caves;  the  sea-birds  sang  as  they  streamed  out  into 
the  ocean,  and  the  land-birds  as  they  built  among  the 
boughs ;  and  the  air  was  so  full  of  song  that  it  stirred 
St.  Brandan  and  his  hermits,  as  they  slumbered  in 
the  shade ;  and  they  moved  their  good  old  lips,  and 
sang  their  morning  hymn  amid  their  dreams.  But 
among  all  the  songs  one  came  across  the  water  more 
sweet  and  clear  than  all;  for  it  was  the  song  of  a 
young  girl's  voice. 

And  what  was  the  song  which  she  sang?  Ah,  my 
little  man,  I  am  too  old  to  sing  that  song,  and  you 
too  young  to  understand  it.  But  have  patience,  and 
keep  your  eye  single,  and  your  hands  clean,  and  you 
will  learn  some  day  to  sing  it  yourself,  without  need- 
ing any  man  to  teach  you. 

[264] 


THE    WATER-BABIES 

And  as  Tom  neared  the  island,  there  sat  upon  a 
rock  the  most  graceful  creature  that  ever  was  seen, 
looking  down,  with  her  chin  upon  her  hand,  and 
paddling  with  her  feet  in  the  water.  And  when 
they  came  to  her  she  looked  up,  and  behold  it  was 
Ellie. 

"  Oh,  Miss  Ellie,"  said  he,  "  how  you  are 
grown !  " 

"  Oh,  Tom,"  said  she,  *'  how  you  are  grown  too ! " 

And  no  wonder;  they  were  both  quite  grown  up — 
he  into  a  tall  man,  and  she  into  a  beautiful  woman. 

"  Perhaps  I  may  be  grown,"  she  said.  "  I  have 
had  time  enough;  for  I  have  been  sitting  here  wait-* 
ing  for  you  many  a  hundred  years,  till  I  thought 
you  were  never  coming." 

"  Many  a  hundred  years?  "  thought  Tom;  but  he 
had  seen  so  much  in  his  travels  that  he  had  quite 
given  up  being  astonished;  and,  indeed,  he  could 
think  of  nothing  but  Ellie.  So  he  stood  and  looked 
at  Ellie,  and  Ellie  looked  at  him;  and  they  liked  the 
employment  so  much  that  they  stood  and  looked  for 
seven  years  more,  and  neither  spoke  nor  stirred. 

At  last  they  heard  the  fairy  say:  "  Attention,  chil- 
dren. Are  you  never  going  to  look  at  me  again  ?  " 

"  We  have  been  looking  at  you  all  this  while," 
they  said.  And  so  they  thought  they  had  been. 

[265] 


THE    WATER-BABIES 

44  Then  look  at  me  once  more,"  said  she. 

They  looked — and  both  of  them  cried  out  at  once, 
"  Oh,  who  are  you,  after  all?  " 

"  You  are  our  dear  Mrs.  Doasyouwouldbedone- 
by." 

"No,  you  are  good  Mrs.  Bedonebyasyoudid;  but 
you  are  grown  quite  beautiful  now !  " 

"  To  you,"  said  the  fairy,  "  but  look  again." 

"  You  are  Mother  Carey,"  said  Tom,  in  a  very 
low,  solemn  voice;  for  he  had  found  out  something 
which  made  him  very  happy,  and  yet  frightened  him 
more  than  all  that  he  had  ever  seen. 

"  But  you  are  grown  quite  young  again." 

"  To  you,"  said  the  fairy.     "  Look  again." 

"  You  are  the  Irishwoman  who  met  me  the  day  I 
went  to  Harthover!  " 

And  when  they  looked  she  was  neither  of  them, 
and  yet  all  of  them  at  once. 

"  My  name  is  written  in  my  eyes,  if  you  have  eyes 
to  see  it  there." 

And  they  looked  into  her  great,  deep,  soft  eyes, 
and  they  changed  again  and  again  into  every  hue, 
as  the  light  changes  in  a  diamond. 

"  Now  read  my  name,"  said  she,  at  last. 

And  her  eyes  flashed,  for  one  moment,  clear, 
white,  blazing  light :  but  the  children  could  not  read 

[266] 


THE    WATER-BABIES 

her  name ;  for  they  were  dazzled,  and  hid  their  faces 
in  their  hands. 

"  Not  yet,  young  things,  not  yet,"  said  she,  smil- 
ing; and  then  she  turned  to  Ellie. 

'  You  may  take  him  home  with  you  now  on  Sun- 
days, Ellie.  He  has  won  his  spurs  in  the  great 
battle,  and  become  fit  to  go  with  you  and  be  a  man; 
because  he  has  done  the  thing  he  did  not  like." 

So  Tom  went  home  with  Ellie  on  Sundays,  and 
sometimes  on  week-days,  too;  and  he  is  now  a  great 
man  of  science,  and  can  plan  railroads,  and  steam- 
engines,  and  electric  telegraphs,  and  rifled  guns,  and 
so  forth;  and  knows  everything  about  everything, 
except  why  a  hen's  egg  don't  turn  into  a  crocodile, 
and  two  or  three  other  little  things  which  no  one 
will  know  till  the  coming  of  the  Cocqcigrues.  And 
all  this  from  what  he  learnt  when  he  was  a  water- 
baby,  underneath  the  sea. 

"  And  of  course  Tom  married  Ellie?  " 

My  dear  child,  what  a  silly  notion!  Don't  you 
know  that  no  one  ever  marries  in  a  fairy  tale,  under 
the  rank  of  a  prince  or  a  princess? 


[267] 


MORAL 

And  now,  my  dear  little  man,  what  should  we 
learn  from  this  parable? 

We  should  learn  thirty -seven  or  thirty-nine  things, 
I  am  not  exactly  sure  which:  but  one  thing,  at  least, 
we  may  learn,  and  that  is  this — when  we  see  efts  in 
the  pond,  never  to  throw  stones  at  them,  or  catch 
them  with  crooked  pins,  or  put  them  into  vivariums 
with  sticklebacks,  that  the  sticklebacks  may  prick 
them  in  their  poor  little  stomachs,  and  make  them 
jump  out  of  the  glass  into  somebody's  work-box,  and 
so  come  to  a  bad  end.  For  these  efts  are  nothing  else 
but  the  water-babies  who  are  stupid  and  dirty,  and 
will  not  learn  their  lessons  and  keep  themselves 
dean;  and,  therefore  (as  comparative  anatomists 
will  tell  you  fifty  years  hence,  though  they  are  not 
learned  enough  to  tell  you  now),  their  skulls  grow 
fat,  their  jaws  grow  out,  and  their  brains  grow  small, 
and  their  tails  grow  long,  and  they  lose  all  their  ribs 
(which  I  am  sure  you  would  not  like  to  do),  and 
their  skins  grow  dirty  and  spotted,  and  they  never 

[268] 


THE   WATER-BABIES 

get  into  the  clear  rivers,  much  less  into  the  great 
wide  sea,  but  hang  about  in  dirty  ponds,  and  live  in 
the  mud,  and  eat  worms,  as  they  deserve  to  do. 

But  that  is  no  reason  why  you  should  ill-use  them: 
but  only  why  you  should  pity  them  and  be  kind  to 
them,  and  hope  that  some  day  they  will  wake  up,  and 
be  ashamed  of  their  nasty,  dirty,  lazy,  stupid  life, 
and  try  to  amend,  and  become  something  better  once 
more.  For,  perhaps,  if  they  do  so,  then  after 
379,423  years,  nine  months,  thirteen  'days,  two 
hours,  and  twenty-one  minutes  (for  aught  that  ap- 
pears to  the  contrary),  if  they  work  very  hard  and 
wash  very  hard  all  that  time,  their  brains  may  grow 
bigger,  and  their  jaws  grow  smaller,  and  their  ribs 
come  back,  and  their  tails  wither  off,  and  they  will 
turn  into  water-babies  again,  and  perhaps  after  that 
into  land-babies;  and  after  that  perhaps  into  grown 
men. 

You  know  they  won't?  Very  well,  I  daresay  you 
know  best.  But  you  see,  some  folks  have  a  great 
liking  for  those  poor  little  efts.  They  never  did 
anybody  any  harm,  or  could  if  they  tried;  and  their 
only  fault  is,  that  they  do  no  good — any  more  than 
some  thousands  of  their  betters.  But  what  with 
ducks,  and  what  with  pike,  and  what  with  stickle- 
backs, and  what  with  water-beetles,  and  what  with 

[269] 


THE   WATER-BABIES 

naughty  boys,  they  are  "  sae  sair  hadden  doun,"  as 
the  Scotsmen  say,  that  it  is  a  wonder  how  they  live; 
and  some  folks  can't  help  hoping,  with  good  Bishop 
Butler,  that  they  may  have  another  chance,  to  make 
things  fair  and  even,  somewhere,  somewhen,  some- 
how. 

Meanwhile,  do  you  learn  your  lessons,  and  thank 
God  that  you  have  plenty  of  cold  water  to  wash  in; 
and  wash  in  it  too.  And  then,  if  my  story  is  not  true, 
something  better  is;  and  if  I  am  not  quite  right,  still 
you  will  be,  as  long  as  you  stick  to  hard  work  and 
cold  water. 

But  remember  always,  as  I  told  you  at  first,  that 
this  is  all  a  fairy  tale,  and  only  fun  and  pretence: 
and,  therefore,  you  are  not  to  believe  a  word  of  itt 
even  if  it  is  true. 


[270] 


UC  SOUTHERN  REGIONAL  LIBRARY  FACILITY 


A    000  161  310     8 


